Because I Love You

Because I love you,

I will encourage you to follow your dreams.

I will move mountains for you.

I will not ask you to change.

I will cherish your freckles, embrace your stretch marks, and adore the way your hair looks when you wake up.

Because I love you, 

I will tell you when you have something in your teeth or your shirt is wrinkled.

I will never lay a hand on you.

I will help you in any way I can.

I will treat your family as if they are my own because, in my eyes, they are.

Because I love you,

I will allow you to be independent.

I will let you decide what we watch on movie nights (sometimes).

I will let you pay for dinner, as long as you let me leave the tip.

I will dry your tears and tell you everything will be okay when your world seems to be falling apart.

Because you did not love me,

You picked fights with me.

You made me feel like I was worthless.

You told me you hated my family and had no interest in trying to get to know them.

You put a tracking app on my phone.

Because you did not love me, 

You didn't allow me to see my friends.

You told me I looked like a penguin in the dress I wore to your sister's wedding.

You told me I was crazy whenever I had a panic attack.

You made me quit marching band because you didn't like how much time I was spending on the field.

Because I love myself,

I got away from you.

I learned how to love and trust again.

I learned what a healthy relationship should look like, and when I look back, we were nowhere near healthy.

Although I still love you, 

You did not love me.

You did not deserve me.

I will never allow myself to be treated that way again.