You need two things to find true love. First, you need to have your heart battered, bruised, and broken a few times. Second, you need courage to try again, in spite of the pain.

You need to be hurt by love because it teaches you. It teaches you two things: where you need to be stronger, and what to appreciate about the man of your dreams, when he does come along. There's is never one person who's entirely at fault in a breakup. It's always the result of two people making mistakes, even if the only mistake is which person they chose to love. You need to learn what mistakes you're making so that you can see through the losers out there when they come at you with their best disguises on.

You also need to learn what mistakes you're making so that you don't hurt the man of your dreams with all your flaws and failures when you do finally find him. When you've loved and lost a few times, you learn exactly what these faults are, and hopefully you're committed to dealing with them by then.

You also need to be hurt so you'll truly appreciate the man of your dreams when he does come along. Let's face it, if you've only ever had one real relationship, or none at all, you'll have nothing to compare the next guy to. How will you know if he's the most amazing man on earth, or an absolute jerk? You might meet the amazing guy, and because you have nothing to compare him to, think he's a jerk. Or maybe the other way around. Getting your heart trampled on a few times will teach you the difference. It probably already has.

But what if you do meet the amazing guy, finally, but because of all the heartbreak, you're too scared to risk giving your love away again? Well, this is why you need the second half of the equation: courage. You've finally achieved wisdom--knowing the difference between who's a knob and who genuinely wants to take care of you. Now you just have to make sure that wisdom isn't clouded by fear, rejecting even the good ones because you've been hurt so many times your head is spinning.

True love is not a "two-way street". You don't "meet each other half way" and "comprimise". If your love is true, you don't have to comprimise anything. True love should always make you more of who you truly are, not less. Your partner's job is to bring out the best in you, and to have the courage and patience to let you do the same for him. The two of you together create an energy that builds both of you up and binds you together into a single, complete soul.

What's the point of a two way street when the two of you are a single, unified lifeforce? It's the hope for such completeness that gives you the courage you need to try one more time.

-Kevin

It involves laughing, and hopefully learning something new, especially about each other.