At You: Things I Love About You

I love your smile.

I love seeing it, and especially love being the cause of it. I love it, especially when I can watch the smile grow like when you're realizing something exciting or you've just gotten good news. I love how I’ve memorized it and even just thinking about it brings a smile to my own face. I don't know why it happens, but sometimes it’s all you have to do to fix my mood. You just smile, and suddenly I can’t be mad and I can’t be sad. I can’t even fake it, because I just end up looking at your dumb face and smiling back.

I love your laugh.

I love hearing it be loud and obnoxious and whole. It’s so carefree and happy. It’s just so telling of joy. As cliche as it is, your laughter is one of my favorite songs. It means you're just being yourself, just enjoying yourself. I love how when you laugh, you laugh with your whole body. You're just a bundle of joy and to be honest, the joy is contagious.

I love hearing your voice.

Something about it is calming and it’s so familiar to me now. It’s comforting. Entering any room, it’s one of the first things I listen for, and when I hear it and know you're there, I can just feel myself brighten. I can’t help that it happens, it just does.

And my God... your singing voice.

I love that too. I love hearing you belt one out dramatically, and I love watching you perform. But I also love hearing it casually. I love when you're just messing around on your phone and you sing because it's natural. You're not even trying, but it's like the whole world melts away when you sing. I could fall asleep to your voice, it's so soothing, but I would never want to. I'd never want to miss hearing it.

I love feeling you.

Not just in sexual ways, but just feeling your skin and touching you. Hugging you is one of the best feelings in the world. Being in your arms is comforting, safe, warm… You're strong when you hug and it’s just the best place to be. I love those rare moments where we’re doing something mundane and your arm is over my shoulder. Or you lean and hug me from behind, resting your head on my shoulder. Just being in close proximity to you, I already feel good. I feel home.

I love how you brighten things so easily.

When there’s a bad situation, you try as hard as possible to find something good about it. And if you can't find something quickly, you make something positive. You are the embodiment of a "bright light at the end of the dark tunnel."

I love your willingness to do or try anything.

I love your ability to take a risk and challenge when people say things can’t be done. As frustrating as it can be sometimes, most of the time, it’s exciting. I love that you just are yourself, unapologetically. People will call you obnoxious or say you try too hard. People say you just want attention. But you're just being you. Just living your life to your idea of the fullest, taking the risks, challenging the odds, having fun... It's amazing.

I love how easily excited you are by anything and everything.

I love that you still haven’t lost that sense of childishness that everyone always seems to lose. You get excited about the tiniest encounters and smallest things, but tell the stories of them like they’re the grandest events to ever have occurred. I love listening to your stories. Tell me about what you got at the grocery store, or who you met at the bookstore, or the regular conversation you had with your dad... It's not boring. It's you.

I just love being around you.

I don't know why.

I don't get it.

But being around you just makes me happy.

Watching you be yourself, dancing, singing, running around, making jokes, telling stories, being cringe-y… It’s all just so you.

And I love every bit of it.