One of the biggest misconceptions I think people have about love is that when things don’t work out, they chalk it up as wasted time. While I completely understand the frustration of giving your heart to someone only for it to be tossed aside—trust me, I’ve been there—I’ve never have, and never will view lost love as a loss.

See, to me, love is a risk. And when you take a risk, you know full well that it might not go your way. You know that the direction may shift, that the imperfect person you’re relying on might change, or that the plans you have might completely fall apart.

Yet in that initial moment, you acknowledge the risks and take a step anyways. You put aside fear and decide, willingly, to trust.

That’s love—not blindness, but belief.

As the days continue, you fight to make things work. As life gets harder (which it inevitably will) you make a series of choices—to stay, to pursue that person, to do what you can to build that relationship despite what’s breaking it apart. There are conscious decisions made, decisions that ride on the coattails of that initial feeling of desire.

Love shifts, becoming less ‘easy’ but more purposeful. And we continue to believe in it. Until it becomes our forever, or until it fades.

And I guess that’s why I’ll never regret loving with all of me. I’ll never regret the moments I jumped in, said ‘yes,’ and fought for what felt right. Even if and when the connections have unraveled, the trust has disappeared, and the love was no longer present, I don’t regret the person I was, and still am.

I love with all of me, and I’m not ashamed.

I think life’s too short to be one foot in and one foot out, to be too afraid to genuinely fall. There are so many temporary things, so many moments we can’t predict or control—why would I resist one of the most beautiful things about being human, simply because I’m scared of getting hurt?

Why would I let the chance of finding my forever slip by because I’m nervous about an outcome I have no understanding of, or power to change? And why would I not try?

Is it not better to jump and fall than to forever wonder what could have happened if I did?

I understand the frustration that comes with a breakup. Having loved deeply quite a few times in my journey, I’m familiar with the anger and sadness that comes in pulling away from someone you thought you’d spend the rest of your life with. Love is beautiful, but it’s incredibly painful. But I believe, with all of my heart, that it’s worth it.

Letting someone in, letting yourself be loved—that’s worth it, no matter how the story ends.

Nothing is wasted time. The moments you spent with someone else were preparing you for the love that’s finding its way to you. Every broken promise is only building your resilience and teaching you what you deserve. And the ones who weren’t forever are only giving you room for the one who is.

Love cannot be a waste. Because it was real—even if it was only for a moment. Because it made you believe in something greater than yourself. And because, for a chunk of time, you gave that relationship, that person, that chapter in your story your all.

Loving with all of you is not weak, it’s noble.
 

Featured Image Credit: Ieva Vizule