THE LOVE I GIVE MYSELF

I used to think love was about making someone else happy. About giving so much of yourself that they never want to leave.

But I was wrong.

I dated someone, and I got lost in them. I studied for the bar exam—something I hated—because I thought it would make them proud. I tried to be perfect, to be enough, to be everything for them.

But they left anyway.

And you know what? I get it now. If I had just loved myself, if I had been happy with me, that would have been enough. I wouldn’t have had to beg for love. It would have been there.

So I’m done with that. Done losing myself in people. Done bending myself into shapes that don’t fit me.

The only love I need to get right is the one I give to myself. Everything else will follow.