smoove.

i don't think our purpose in life is to get married, build a business, become successful, or achieve some extraordinary version of ourselves. those can all be beautiful expressions of life, but i don't think they're why we're here. i think we're here to fall in love with the human being we came here to experience. there's something beautiful about realizing that the one person who's been with you through every version of yourself is you. through every mistake, every heartbreak, every achievement, every moment of uncertainty. you've witnessed it all from within, in a way nobody else ever could. and maybe that's what the deepest form of self-love really is. learning to look at yourself the way a loving parent looks at their child. not because they're perfect, but because they're theirs. allowing yourself to grow without hating who you are, forgiving yourself without making excuses, and understanding yourself with the same patience you so willingly extend to others. we spend so much of our lives trying to become someone worthy of being chosen. chasing success to feel accomplished, relationships to feel wanted, and validation to feel enough. somewhere along the way, we start treating ourselves as projects that need fixing rather than people worth experiencing. but there's a difference between wanting to be loved and making someone else's love the condition upon which you allow yourself to love your own life. you can want someone without needing to convince them to choose you. you can love deeply without abandoning yourself. you can experience rejection without turning it into a verdict on your worth. and perhaps when you stop chasing love as proof that you're enough, you begin approaching life from a place of love instead of a fear of not receiving it. you stop trying so hard to be loved, and start becoming someone who knows how to love, including themselves. maybe that's the whole point. not to become extraordinary enough to deserve love, but to realize you never needed to become extraordinary to deserve it in the first place. after all, the longest relationship you'll ever have is the one you have with yourself. might as well make it a beautiful one.