Don't forget to love yourself

I recently stumbled upon a video on YouTube called 'The Last' by Wong Fu Productions. It's a must watch!

In it, a man describes to his current girlfriend, the loves of his life. He states that there are five, each falling under Who?, What?, When? Where? and Why?

Who? Is the love you put on a pedestal, the one full of make believe. It's that puppy love, that childhood crush, the one you'll have written about inside love hearts on your text books. The one your friends teased you about and still do perhaps .

What? Describes the love you have that is akin to that of a best friend. You share a multitude of inside jokes, and there is a depth, familiarity and trust that you can't shake. They're the one you've known forever though you only met them a week ago.

When? This is the love that starts a new history. It sparks something inside you that allows you to begin again, to actually let go of the past, embrace the present and get excited about the future.

Where? You'd go anywhere in the world for this love. That 'I'm never leaving the city I grew up in' mantra evaporates as soon as they enter your life and offer you a new place. It doesn't matter where you are, as long as you're with them.

Why? That list of what you want in a person is confirmed in this one. They give you a true understanding of what you do and don't want. Before now, you've only imagined the love you think you deserve and want, and they turn up and actually show you.

In the YouTube video, the girlfriend then asks which love she is, as her partner does not describe her under any of the different types of love. He says that she's the last, the one that encompasses them all. She's the one he has on a pedestal and dreams about, she's his best friend, the one with whom he'll start a new history, build their own story, anywhere that life takes them. She's the one that is everything he could want and still so much more.

It's a beautiful story, and it is told in a very non-corny way. It makes sense.

As I watched it, I found myself fitting people into each 'type'. That guy from my teen years, definitely make believe, that one who drives me insane is absolutely a best friend but nothing more, then there's him who had me forget about the 'what ifs' of living somewhere because I was so onboard with being with him, and then there's the one who my heart broke for as a learned exactly what I want.

I couldn't think of anyone for the new history, I really struggled. I'm ine with not having a 'last one' yet. He's on his way I'm sure. But I ticked off so many of the types so easily, I felt there had to be a new history. And do you know what? There is.

But it isn't a boy, a romantic relationship or even a friend. It's me. It's the love I have for myself. The love I struggle to act upon the most out of all of the loves I've ever had, and yet it is one of the most important and significant loves that could ever be present in my life. Falling in love with myself, figuring out who I am to be in love with and being confident in that, that's the new history, that's what will shape my life.

I think we all need that reminder sometimes, a lot of the time actually. There is a lot of ove in our lives, whomever we are, love is available to you. But we must always learn to love ourselves and never think that external validation will ever truly compensate for what we don't feel internally. It won't. You have to love you. You deserve to love you. You are worthy of all the love in the world and more, don't ever forget that or let someone convince you otherwise.