“We’re all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness—and call it love—true love.” ? Robert Fulghum
It’s often easy to get hung up on a checklist of requirements when you’re dating new people. But maybe what we should pay attention to isn’t a checklist of qualities, but the effect a partner has on us. When someone brings out your worst, it’s probably a sign something’s wrong. But when someone shows you a good side of yourself you’ve never known before, you’ve chanced upon something rare.
When you meet someone who brings out the best in you, you’ve found someone worth holding on to.
1. It seems like when you’re around them, the most unique parts of you are awakened and appreciated in ways they never have been before. The weirdness that other people were put off by, the jokes you only laughed at yourself: you finally found someone else who understands.
2. Your own patience and understanding with your partner surprises you. When they have a rough time, you feel sympathetic to them and never judgmental.
3. You know what you want, and your path is becoming clearer. You’re ambitious about your personal goals. Even though you’re in a relationship, your own individual aspirations are burning brighter than ever.
4. In the past, partners provoked your insecurities, but this time your partner reinforces your own confidence in yourself. You feel like your strongest, most independent self–but with someone by your side to root for you.
5. Bullshitting about anything is out of the question. Your partner challenges you to challenge yourself. Overall, you are more honest with yourself now, and you can’t live in denial or they’ll call you out on it.
6. You care less and less what other people think. You only concern yourself with what you think, and try to be the best for the people who matter most to you.
7. You find it easier to be loving and affectionate with them. In the past, you weren’t always 100% with holding hands and whatnot in public. Now it only feels natural.
8. They appreciate the parts of yourself that you’re the most proud of. Your unusual personality, the unexpected things you make jokes about: they like you for the same qualities that make you feel good about being yourself. You know you’ve found something worth holding onto.
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