Until I Met You

I never knew true love until I met you. To me, love was a waste of time - it was wishful fantasy conjured up by fools. As Freddie Mercury said best, it was "a crazy little thing called love."

Overall, the facet of love was a strange, foreign concept to me. I often fought the urge to turn up my nose at every utterance of the four letter word.

It took every ounce of strength not to retreat into the darkness every second week of the month of February, lest rain on the parade of anyone who wished to celebrate.

Fools, they were. I, on the other hand, was immune to the glitz and glamour and the smoke and mirrors of lust, and things of that nature.

Of course, that was until I met you. When I first laid eyes on you, it was as if everything else suddenly functioned in black and white, but you were in color.

Even in those rare times when the smallest smidgen of my heart wanted to believe that love - friendly, romantic, or otherwise - was possible, it was nothing like this.

You smiled, I stuttered. You politely offered, I adamantly refused. You approached me with such a gentleness and a kindness had I never experienced before.

Yet, there was something very non-threatening about your approach. You were very patient and unpretentious in your accepting of me - my pessimism, my insecurity, and my inexperience.

Even though I might not have not shown it at the time, I appreciated everything about you and wanted to do everything in my power to learn what love is. If not for my sake, but for yours.

Even though you are gone now, I will forever cherish the light you brought into my life. You taught me many things I would never dream of learning on my own. You made me feel attractive and important... like I meant something.

Although I may not be with you now, the thought of you never escapes my mind. Every breath, every sound, every scent reminds me of our forgotten love. Though, it is not forgotten by me. You proved me wrong, and I love you for it.