It took me a long time to figure out a perfect love wasn’t about little surprises or expensive vacations or even a million, cliche pictures. A few years ago, I had that. I had a relationship that everybody bragged about. People I didn’t know would approach me and say they seen our pictures and they wanted something like that. People said we were a “match made in heaven.” They didn’t see what went on behind closed doors though. They didn’t see the cheating, the anger, the way he put me down and brought out my biggest insecurities and the way he would grab my arm and hold on so tight, there would be bruises. They didn’t see him put his hand around my throat when he got angry with me. They didn’t see the marks I hid so well with clothes and makeup. People called it a fairytale. I called it a nightmare. I somehow managed to escape. I was one of the lucky girls who got away before it got too out of hand. I also got talked about. People accused me of playing him, of breaking his heart, of hurting him. They didn’t see the hurt I had been through. They seen an idiotic girl who gave up her once in a lifetime love story. My love life today is different. After months… years… of healing, I finally moved on. My relationship is raw. It’s real. It has its flaws. It isn’t a fairytale. I don’t get the biggest bouquet of flowers that his parents can afford. I don’t get love letters copied from something he seen on pinterest. I don’t get a million, cliche pictures in poses every couple uses. I don’t get dates every Friday night. We aren’t an Instagram or Tumblr couple. I don’t post things to him for likes, he doesn’t post things to me at all because he doesn’t get on the internet often. People don’t call this a fairytale and that’s okay because those things don’t prove love. I get his honesty. I get his hand randomly grabbing mine and a Saturday night of ice cream and game shows at his place. I get “goodmorning baby” texts and talking about our future kids and house and dog. I get real talks about our day and the troubles of our jobs and what our families are up to. Nobody knows about the times that we sit up until 2 A.M. talking about everything we can possibly think of. Nobody understands the beauty of our simple love. Our love isn’t a fairytale… Our love is real life. We live it everyday, all of the ups and downs, all of the obstacles… We go through it together hand in hand. Nobody understands it but us and you know what? That’s okay.