How Do You Know if it’s True Love?featured
I used to have a high school sweetheart. The boy you think will be forever yours. The boy you know your parents will approve of. The boy who you liked before you even knew you could like anyone. I was going to spend forever with him. Until I didn’t.
A friend recently asked me how and when I knew my fiancé was the “one.”
He wasn’t my high school sweetheart. He wasn’t the boy that I looked up to like a damsel in distress. My fiancé was someone entirely different. He was a best friend of mine when I was a teenager.
So how do you know if it’s true love? The answer is easy yet different for each and every one of us. For me, I knew the moment I saw him. I knew before I even met him in person. I knew I loved his heart before I ever saw his face.
You see, my fiancé and I were best buddies before we ever physically met. We would talk all hours of the day and night and I was well aware that no other human had ever made me laugh as hard as he did. When I spoke to him I got butterflies every time. And that is how I knew.
I knew it was true love because I could tell him everything without ever being judged. I knew it was true love because my gut told me so. If you know anything about me, you know that I often second guess my gut. And I did question my gut on this one. I questioned it for many many years.
I figured I would grow out of this gut feeling that told me we would be best friends for life. But I never did. I always knew on some level that this one was never to be forgotten or put in a picture book filled with old crushes and regrets.
For me, marriage is all about companionship. It’s about finding that team mate that will motivate you to be more than you’ve ever been. It’s about feeling supported when you don’t necessarily know which way is up. It’s about having someone love you to the point that they would do everything in their power to make you laugh on your very worst day. It’s about being strong when the other is weak and being okay with being weak when the other is strong.
I knew it was true love the moment we established our loving friendship.
My fiancé was the first person I met that truly ever listened to what I had to say. He would make every situation better by the ring of a phone call. And he still does.
When he calls I know he will say the right words to make it all okay. When I see his face I know none of the rest matters. And when I am near him I feel at home.
Whether he is across the room, or downstairs somewhere, I always feel my best when he is around.
I always thought the people who said, “He completes me,” were full of it. I now know better because he really does. Without him, I am not my best, although I do often try.
True love can oftentimes disguise itself in different forms and mine did in the form of friendship. It showed up before I was even ready and it stuck around for over 12 years. I guess I didn’t really always “know” it was true love but I did know it felt right when it all started.
What is true love to you?
Love Deeply and Forever,
Karen
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