Valentine's Day - By Autumn Leppla

Here's to the girls who try their hardest to be good enough for everyone; who spend hours reading random quotes to find the right one; who listen to the same dozen songs because the lyrics mean a lot; who are sorely spending Valentine’s day alone with a glass of wine; who deserves so much more than they get and are willing to fight for it; whose wish upon a star was wasted on someone who will never care.

Parents always tell us not to focus on relationships because they aren't important at our age and we should wait till we're old and ready to settle down or it will just distract you. But I think the best part about being young is how deeply we feel.

When you find someone you really like, you get all excited and jittery just to hear their voice, that moment where your heart stops when you finally have the guts to tell them you like them. You think about their every feature and every moment you spend together and it just makes you feel happy inside. That first kiss is nothing like you could ever explain, It's too good to be true. But young love is like a roller coaster. It's cliche but so true at the same time. You fight, scream and yell. You're whole body just feels weak with your heart hanging heavily. Like I said before, we feel everything so deeply, even the pain. We let ourselves get hurt because we never knew how hard we would fall. Such ignorance of the consequences.  

But in my own twisted mind I think it it is so beautiful. We should be thankful to have that ability to feel that hurt, that you actually found someone to make you feel that way. For some people it's too late.. Because in those years we have, where we laugh and cry, we learn to love and be strong. Some of us built these walls up because they learned too early to be strong. That used to be me, a young, lost, sad little girl who thought it was better to have no feelings because the one person who was supposed to love me unconditionally left me without a care in the world.

Everything is a learning process, Don't take these years for granted because you will never get them back and there's a possibility you may never feel the same way again.
So here's to the girls who are spending Valentine's day alone with a bottle of wine…

Accept the possibility of fully being alone while also knowing and believing that you will meet your soul mate one day. It means you accept that love is not given to you by another, but one you cultivate yourself and is enhanced by others.

Model & Words: Autumn @autumnleppla

Photographer: John Hong @johnhongstudio

Hair: Jaime Diaz @jaimeedencreates

Makeup: Julie Brooks @muse_mua