Can you believe it's been more than a year since we met?

It seems crazy to me. This year has been such a blur it's hard to keep track of the ups and downs.

January was an amazing month. The time we spent together gave me so much joy and self-esteem, I felt like I'd won the lottery... until you left. My heart, my brain were torn apart for a fair while at the start of February but, after consulting my friends and taking the plunge, there we were, a partnership, separated by thousands of miles but joined by wonderful, wonderful love.

The following six months were a heady combination of blissful adoration and harrowing separation. I felt so loved, and loved loving you. I'd worried about you for the first few months you were at uni, and kept my fingers crossed that you'd ease yourself into an active social life. I so enjoyed seeing you become more confident, less anxious, more involved socially, making friends and settling into a good routine in Geelong. I loved seeing you become yourself - the Tess I knew while you were here - and it gave me such hope for your future.

It's a shame things didn't work out between us, but that doesn't mean we didn't make huge achievements between us. We both opened up to another person, both let ourselves love and be loved, physically and emotionally. We both found and understood parts of ourselves we'd buried or put away for safe-keeping. We've come away better, stronger people and I still firmly believe:

Totally worth it.