Lauren Jarvis-Gibson

You light your vanilla candle, the one your best friend gave you from Bath & Body Works that smells like middle school and memories. It’s 7 pm. You’re already half drunk and exhausted. It’s only Monday.

Tomorrow. I know what you’re thinking. Tomorrow this and tomorrow that. Stop! Focus on the now, and on the present moment. For all you know, tomorrow may not come, so don’t waste your time fretting about it. 

Most importantly, they will remind you every day that you are worthy of love for yourself. And they will remind you that you are still so incredibly lovable even after all this time.

Don’t go down that path. For you are by far the greatest thing that he will never get to have. And you are by far have the most wonderful and beautiful heart, that he will never get to unravel. 

What’s done is done. What’s happened has already happened. Maybe it was wonderful. Maybe it wasn’t. But, regardless, I can’t keep opening up old wounds. I can’t keep picking at scars ready for them to bleed. I can’t keep opening up my heart until all of it has dissolved right in front of me.

I smile without him now. You can too.

As cliche as this sounds, life is so so short. You don’t want to wake up one day and be full of regrets about what you didn’t do. So do it. Buy that ticket. Move to other side of the world. Take that job offer. Kiss that person who you have loved for years now. Do it. And live with no regrets.

You only have one heart and one life. And at the end of the day, you will be stuck with your choices and chances that you took or didn’t take. Choose wisely. And most importantly, always know that your heart is sacred. And it belongs to someone just as sacred and beautiful as you.

It seems contradictory, right? We have such wide and open heart. We want to love and love some more. We search and search, trying to find our forever person. And then we pick the person who is completely wrong for us. Maybe blindly. But in time, we realize it isn’t a good match. And yet, we don’t give up on it.

Be kind to others but be even kinder to yourself. Let yourself rest when you need to. Let yourself breathe when you need to. Let yourself fall in love with every single part of you — even the parts that aren’t so beautiful.

Life is so much more than that. It’s so much more than settling down. It’s about so much more than getting a sparkly ring on your finger. It’s so much more than finding another human being to love.

Have fun pretending you are better off without her. Have fun picking up the pieces you pretended were never there. Have fun living life faking a smile.