Love is very real. It is also very hard.
I think too often we imagine it's going to be like the fairy tales and once it happens we will live happily ever after. Well, we can, but it takes work.
Often, after a bad relationship, we give up hope.
All that hard work down the drain. It takes time to heal from that, even when we are the ones who end it.
I know I love my girlfriend and I have gone through moments of doubts, but now she is very far away (studying abroad) and there's an emptiness in my life.
We've had to do long distance before( over 700 miles), but there was something different about this. It's love. I could not imagine not having her in my life.
It just took me some time to figure that out.