Dear Love,

I never saw you coming.  I thought you were avoiding me.  You seemed to be all around me but at the same time, no where near me.  My friends were using your name, expressing you in ways I hadn’t even begun to consider, and I couldn’t seem to find you anywhere.  I thought you weren’t real. 

I first began searching when I was young, as most people do.  I found you in the adoring eyes of my mother, in the warm hugs of my father, and in the tears of laughter shed by my friends, but I only found pieces of you.  I wanted all of you.I was seeing you with my peers and with strangers on the street, I cried with jealousy as I watched you in movies on the television.  Why were you avoiding me?  What had I done wrong? 

I spent my days at school desperately searching for you, but all I found were blank faces with blank hearts.  I decided to give up on my search and I began to resent you.  I swore I’d never find you, that I didn't want to find you because you hurt those you meet and you hurt those you don’t.  But then I realized, the pain wasn’t caused by you, it was caused by them. It was caused by the people who used your name without meaning it, it was caused by those who threw your name around without understanding who you were.  You never meant to hurt anybody.

When I realized your good intentions, I began to admire you.  I started to notice your positivity. I began to see your effect on the world.  You’re the reason most of us exist, you’re the reason I exist.  Discovering your beauty made me realize that you’re everywhere, that I didn’t need to look anymore, and that's when I found you.  I stared in the mirror and realized that this whole time, you were just hiding in my reflection.