Stephanie Pusca’s Reviews > Conversations on Love > Status Update

Romance is finding ways to show someone they’re appreciated. (…)
Love doesn’t disappear when you aren’t quiet and perfect.

I still struggle with articulating my needs. (…) Believing that I deserve love is a work in progress for me.

When you don't understand or value yourself it's
more difficult to generate love for other people. It made me see, too, that I had never really loved the men I'd dated and idealized in my twenties. I had not been invested in helping them grow, or in seeing the whole of who they were, because I was more interested in how I looked in their perception of me. It was a half-hearted version of love, rooted in ego.

“I need to work on breaking out of my role as caregiver, because that's rooted in wanting to be needed. I've woven a big part of my identity through looking after people, and I know that part of love in friendship is asking for your needs to be met too.” - Candice Carty-Williams