We said I love you for the first time

It was a perfect Valentine's Day. We drove downtown, sat and talked at the bench where we first met, reminisced about our first impressions of each other, laughed at the innappropriately timed 911 emergency happening across the street, and we said I love you for the first time.

I've grown used to being happy on my own, with my share of getting over a difficult past relationship and healing from depression. But with this man, I feel happy and finally feel something positive not associated with pain. I feel hope. I feel the motivation to grow and change and make every day count that doesn't entirely happen by myself, but with someone to share it with. I see a light in the future that I haven't seen in a long time. I don't have to be so strong all the time.

It may sound cheesy, but I'm so damn happy and I feel like this is the first time I'm genuinely enjoying everything I have in my life. Do I need a man to do that? No. But falling in love with him has opened my heart to everything else, to fall in love with life again. And maybe, just maybe, I've started learning how to love myself, too.