I came across Noemi Dado’s Love Struck Writing Contest.  I didn’t really plan on joining but then I thought, who knows, I might win $50 If you have a love struck story too, you might want to join too. My entry below was originally written and posted while we were in the midst of our wedding preparations.

Before the wedding, there’s the couple. Before any girl dreams of the perfect wedding, she dreams of finding THE ONE. Finding the right person can be taxing, nerve-wracking, time-consuming, exhausting, and emotionally-draining. Especially if you have to go through deep shit mud before you hit gold. There are also lucky ones.

For Ramil and me, finding each other is like my mom looking for her eyeglasses when she was wearing them all along. We were classmates from grades 3 to 6. We played patintero, chinese garter, agawan base, and even piko! As fate would have it, we got accepted to the same high school and university. We were again classmates in 4th year HS and since I’m in the same barkada as his crush, we became better friends…hehe! It was inevitable that we continued to be friends in college. And in our 2nd year in UP, something beautiful crept its way between us.

Our time together as a couple hasn’t always been smooth. We argued. We fought. He made me cry lots of times. I made him cry sometimes (i’m not sure i’m allowed to divulge that info). We were hostile. We dared each other with cool offs and breaks but neither has the guts to risk losing the other. Despite these, we are a perfect fit. We are inseparable. We are bestfriends. We are madly in love with each other. We are meant to be.

I learned that love is not about finding the perfect person because there is none. It’s about seeing an imperfect person perfectly. Fights are as much a part of it as sweet nothings whispered in each other’s ears. So how do I know he’s THE ONE? I feel it deep in my gut. Because after more than 5 years of seeing each other almost every single day, there hasn’t been a time when we got tired of each other. Funny, what sealed it for me was our biggest fight ever. After the fight, I felt so drained that I told God… “if he’s not the one for me, it’s ok. I’m letting go”. That same night, lo and behold, he texted me the sweetest and most sincere message he ever made. Then I knew…