When love isn’t enough.

but then again…it is sometimes.

I’ve learned a lot about what love means over the years. Love for your family (even though they seem crazy in so many ways), love for your friends (even though you think that decision they made was all but nuts), love for that job (even though it’s not really challenging you anymore), love for that man (even though that love simply isn’t enough).

Because it isn’t some times. We hate to admit it. But loving someone or some job, or some friend…simply isn’t enough sometimes. This year I broke up twice. Twice. Truth.

I left a job I loved, a team I loved, a cause I loved. But for the right reasons — a new adventure and challenge. But it was still a “break up.” I loved so much about my last startup — our mission, our product, our team, our leader(s) and most importantly- I loved my colleagues. Those amazing people that made me think and smile everyday. I loved them.

But it wasn’t enough. Enough to keep me from the new adventure that I felt compelled to take. It was time. I had to jump…with no plan, and fuck…it worked out. Dare I say, it worked out brilliantly.

This year, I also broke up with a man I had been dating for three years. We were supposed to move in together, get married, have kids and do all of those things. But again — love wasn’t enough. Sure we loved each other. He is an amazing man. But we grew apart. The drama queens want a better story but there is no one to give them. He is passionate about his road, and I am about mine. Both of us are right in so many ways — and love was not enough to keep us fighting for the future we created in our heads.

People hate admitting love isn’t enough. Because all of a sudden the photos they put on Facebook aren’t real. Those social updates aren’t real. Those holidays they spent. That story they marketed. Those secret Pinterest wedding boards. Those imaginary kid names. Those promotions at work. Those beautiful exits…weren’t real.

As if, because of the breakup, none of it was real.

I say — screw that. It’s all real…at the time. Because it was real then but no longer the reality doesn’t mean the love you felt at the time wasn’t real. I’d say quite the opposite.

If the love at that moment was real enough to convince you…then doesn’t it deserve a nod of the head?

I think so.

This year reminded me…plans are just plans. What really matters is what you build. What makes you happy. The people that are there next to you. Sometimes love isn’t enough. And sometimes it is. I truly believe, that all we do is defined by the second in this life we decide to give it. We learn from those moments that time does not align. And we learn…and love (at the deepest level known to us) at those moments that time does.

It’s the dichotomy we live with. And I—for one—am so damn thankful for it.

Here’s to 2014. To love…being enough.