“Perfection is shallow, unreal, and fatally uninteresting.” ~ Anne Lamott

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She’s funny, smart and kind.

She’s beautiful, friendly and seemingly carefree.

She is hardworking, self-sufficient and independent.

She cooks you dinner, rubs your back and adores you.

She laughs at your stupid jokes and listens to you talk about work, politics, anything really…

She thinks you are intelligent; she wants to get to know the inner workings of your mind.

She’s not perfect; but damn, she’s trying.

She cares about you with her whole being. She worries about you, and she prays for you. She constantly hopes that you are happy and that she is doing enough, and that she is being enough for you.

She loves to talk. She uses it as therapy. It’s as if once the bad parts of her day leave her lips, she has set them free from her body.

She knows that she can be a little annoying—that she isn’t perfect. But that is just who she is—a girl who loves to tell you about her day. She doesn’t edit it down. She wants to tell you the good, and more so the bad.

She is short-tempered and knows all too well how to hold a grudge. She is hard-headed and finds pain in apologies. She hates responsibilities, and her patience oftentimes wears a little too thin.

Her escape has always been running. When things get hard, she runs. When she gets scared, she runs. When she becomes overwhelmed, she runs.

She always ran—until now.

She’s a lot of things, and one of those things is a damn fighter.

If she puts her mind to it—she’s going to f*cking do it. And she reached a point where she decided she didn’t want to run anymore. She was ready to stay for the ugly parts of life. She embraced that life isn’t always going to be perfect, and that she wants to stick around and see what teachings these imperfect and challenging moments hold.

So she is staying, and she has her mind set on that.

And she has also put her mind on you.

She knows it isn’t easy—that she isn’t always easy.

She knows that you aren’t always easy. She knows she isn’t perfect and that you aren’t perfect. She knows this relationship isn’t perfect, yet she is suited up and ready to go to war for love.

This perfectly flawed and imperfect love.

The only thing she asks of you is to remember that she is many things, but she is not perfect.

And she is standing here in all of her imperfection and shortcomings, ready to fight for this.

Like her, this isn’t perfect. Not even close. But damn, who needs perfect? And just because it isn’t perfect, doesn’t mean it’s not worth it.

“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” ~ John Steinbeck

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Author: Emily Cutshaw

Image: Lauren Treece/Flickr

Editor: Caitlin Oriel