There was a time I thought I was nothing without you.
That your leaving had erased who I was.

But slowly, painfully, I found pieces of myself again.
In laughter that didn’t feel forced.
In new places that didn’t carry your ghost.
In the courage to dream again, even if differently.

Loving you shaped me. Losing you scarred me.
But here I stand — not whole, not the same, but real.

I am not who I was before you.
I am not who I was with you.
I am who I became after you.

And maybe that is the truest gift love gives us: not just someone to share our hearts with, but the strength to find our hearts again when they are broken.

Always and Forever