Oh, love actually IS all around

I’ve been dumped twice.

“Dumped” is kind of a dramatic way to put it. These breakups were nothing scandalous—just your standard teenage heartbreaks. The kind of relationships that were always destined to crash and burn, but at the time, felt just like the '90s rom-coms I grew up watching with my mom.

Back then, I thought I was losing love. But looking back, I realize that while I was reeling, love poured in from places I had taken for granted.

The day after my first long-term relationship ended, my best friend Sydney pulled into my driveway with a breakup playlist blasting and an acai bowl riding shotgun. Vision blurry with tears, she held my hand for an entire hour as we drove down Highway 1 with Conan Gray on repeat. She timed her reactions perfectly as I refreshed his Instagram to see if he’d deleted our photos, and listened patiently while I bombarded her with questions she had absolutely no way of answering. (Sorry, Sydney, for assuming you had a telepathic connection to my high school boyfriend.)

Now, we call that drive The Day—a story we tell like we’ve been given a script. It’s no longer a story about a breakup, it’s a testament to friendship.

And then, freshman year of college, when my hometown boyfriend ended things over FaceTime, my friends showed up in the same way. I can still feel the love from that day: the love from my roommate, who held me as I cried in her bed; the love from friends who hadn’t even known me for a full year, squeezing into my dorm room to watch Someone Great and eat takeout sushi. They came bearing ice cream and laughter—and my best friend even brought her toothbrush, just in case I needed her to stay the night.

So maybe breakups don’t just show us what we’ve lost—but remind us of the love that won’t leave so easily.