Adulthood has a funny way of teaching you some of the more important lessons in life. Like when you’re sitting at a Mexican restaurant in downtown Scottsdale and the person you’re sitting across from is making you laugh so hard you damn near spit your water out of your nose. You stop for a second because you’re embarrassed at the snort you just made, but that person just continues to smile at you. Then you realize it’s - this is okay. It’s okay to laugh. It’s okay to laugh so hard you end up making a total dork of yourself. It’s okay to move on. You realize that you don’t need to keep hanging on to every thing that went wrong or could have been done differently. You no longer need to blame yourself for the people who chose to settle for less when you could have offered them the world. Going on dates is okay. The relationship ended and it’s not longer up to you to continue to hold grudges over your own head. Moving on is not a bad thing and you’re worth more than waiting for someone to change their mind, when their mind was set a long time ago. You did everything you could. For some, that’s just not enough. And that’s okay. Sitting in a colorful booth in a dark restaurant reminds you that, yes, you are enough. You just need to find that person who acknowledges what you have to bring to the table, rather than hiding underneath it. And maybe this person you went on your first date with isn’t the one. Or maybe he is. The point is that it no longer matters. There’s no rush in this. There’s no competition in who can get married and settled down first. The value comes from loving yourself because, at the end of the day, you are your own most important person. So once life hands that lesson to you with a side of beef tacos, you start to feel at peace. You no longer care about his “single” status on Facebook that changed quicker than you could snap your fingers. You no longer care about the photos that got deleted.
You’re okay with being strangers with that person now. Truth be told, you were strangers the whole time. Choosing to learn how to love yourself is a mighty drug and the cure for almost any broken heart. You accept what’s done is done, then you continue on with your date - happy knowing that it is possible for another person to look at you like you’re gold. You deserve that.