When you’re wearing that rose-colored lens called love after meeting someone you truly like, it can be a little tricky to figure out if the relationship is really all you’ve made it out to be in your head. Before you completely let yourself go, here’s how you know that the love and the guy are for real.
- It feels safe and secure. Love can leave you feeling like an astronaut that has been jettisoned out of his space shuttle. You never really know where you stand in his life or if he’s going to walk out one day and close the door on you forever. When a great guy truly loves you, he’ll make you feel secure and safe even when you’re not around him. You just know that he will protect and shield you from the worst of things, and being with him feels like you’re finally home.
- Time loses all meaning. You know when you spend a whole weekend with someone you like, but when it’s time to leave you can swear that it was just a few hours? True love feels like that most of the time. Days become hours and hours are just mere minutes and every second together is a gift you treasure with your whole heart.
- He changes you in wonderful ways. I used to be the kind of girl who put up really high walls around myself to keep from getting hurt. I’d repress my feelings whether they were reciprocated or not. It wasn’t until I met this incredible guy who loved me out of my bubble, who was so honest and vulnerable with me that I started flirting with the idea of opening up and sharing parts of myself I didn’t even know I had.
- You feel genuinely supported. It’s easy for people to say they’ll be there for you—the hard work is actually doing so. A guy who will do everything in his power to never let you down is a guy who truly loves you. He’ll not try to come between you and the things that are important to you, he’ll respect you and your plans for your life, and he’ll be interested in helping you achieve your goals. He’ll always have your back and you will know it.
- It feels as if everything in the world is somehow better. I knew that I’d finally found love because even when I was going through a particularly bad depressive episode, there was this small assurance that as long as he was there, I’d be fine. The moments when it passed and I was happy felt like the most impossible joy. I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said I felt invincible because I was with him. Loving a guy who shows you every day how great love can be is just an absolute trip.
- You grow emotionally. Let’s face it, there will come times when it seems like you’re just not on the same page, but when you’re loved by a wonderful guy all that means is that you have to come together and work out a compromise. You find yourself becoming a better, emotionally mature person. The bad history in your life starts to lose its bite. He’ll help you heal even the worst of it.
- It makes you feel honored. If you’re in a relationship where his feelings for you make you feel somewhat irritated or annoyed, it’s probably because you feel you deserve better. Loving and being loved by a great guy will have you feel really special and lucky, like out of everyone in the world he chose you and decided to love you. He sees the best in you, the good you can’t even find in yourself. It’s the most beautiful thing knowing that you adored by him; to him, you’re everything.
- It feels like an active partnership. When a guy really loves you, he’ll want to make you a part of his life and that means introducing you to his family and friends. He’ll want them to get to know you and love you and for you to do the same with them. He’d stop thinking in terms of “I” and adopt the “we” approach. You’ll feel him letting you into every aspect of his world because he sees you as his teammate and vice versa.
- It makes you feel seen. A great guy who truly loves you will pay attention to even the things you’re not saying. He’ll understand your tiny quirks and those details that other people don’t. He can see through the walls you put up. He sees the ugliest parts of you and still decides to entrust all his love to your care.
