A Toast to All the Brave Hearts Who Broke Up with Their Toxic Halfs

A toast to you for not taking them back. A toast for you for saying, no. I deserve better. No matter how much you love them. No matter how much they might love you. 

A toast to you for realizing that someone can love you in a way that you’ve never been loved but still not be ready. A toast to you for letting go. Because you never ever have to convince or inspire someone to do the work to be ready.

A toast to you for not accepting mixed singles, half-assed effort, unkept promises and lies. No matter how big your connection is. No matter how amazing they can be or how much they can make you feel special when they’re in a good mood. 

A toast to you for not settling, when it would be so easy to. 

A toast to you for realizing that you need intimacy; real intimacy. Fingers touching your lips, palms squeezing tightly together, hands brushing through your hair. Hearts racing and unguarded, seeing the most raw and unfiltered versions of each other. Seeing all those perfect imperfections that never got revealed to anyone. Getting lost in each other. 

A toast to you for knowing that there is more, so much more. 

A toast to you for knowing that there will be someone who will show up, no matter what. No bullshit excuses. Someone who will keep their word. Every single time. Someone who talks about your future with no hesitation and doesn’t keep your heart in an emotional limbo. 

Someone who lifts you up after a long day at work. Someone who makes you bite your lip and makes your eyes light up with excitement. Chills up the spine. Someone who challenges you and makes you think but is always respecting you, looking at you, listening to you. 

Someone who makes you feel special in your face mask and bathrobe on, when you think you’re at your least attractive and lovable. Someone who makes your whole being laugh. Someone who never forgets how special you are, no matter how many people are trying to get their attention. Someone whose face lights up when you enter a room; eyes intrigued, hands always wanting to be close to you. 

The truth is, you could have stayed. You could have settled. You could have not completed the hardest break-up known to the human heart and accepted “this is the way they are.” But you kept going, refusing to accept not getting everything you deserve. Refusing to abandon yourself in the effort to keep someone or something.

No matter how many bad dates you had to go through. No matter how many times your heart broke and you had to start again. Because subconsciously you knew, you know that there is a more extraordinary love out there that you would never know if it didn’t end it with the last one. 

Your heart never stopped believing.