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What Happens When Love Doesn’t Go as Planned?

Love is seldom picture-perfect

Nicole Akers
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4 min readFeb 4, 2025

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Photo by Pavel Danilyuk: https://www.pexels.com/photo/couple-kissing-each-other-8552948/

Love isn’t easy. Wouldn’t it be nice if it were? If it came with clear instructions, a GPS to avoid dead ends, and maybe a pause button for when things get overwhelming? But love — real love — tends to be a maze, not a straight line.

Think about the moon and the tides. The moon pulls at the ocean, and the ocean never stops reaching for it, even though they’ll never actually touch. That’s unrequited love in its most poetic form. Is it possible that love has circadian rhythms? I think it does.

Love is full of detours. The person you spent years waiting for finally notices you — right after you’ve moved on. Or you cross paths with someone who feels like home, only to realize they’re just passing through.

If true love is finding your way, then I think it’s also about what you learn while you’re lost. It’s about the courage to love again after heartbreak, the absurdity of falling for someone at the worst possible time, and the strange, beautiful way that even unreturned love still matters. Sometimes love is from a distance because you’re better apart than you are together.

So, if you’re in the middle of a love story that isn’t going as planned, I think you’re normal.

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Nicole Akers
Nicole Akers

Written by Nicole Akers

Teacher | Happy Mom of 2 brings amazing tips on parenting, learning, & lifestyle | 🐶 Mom | Bestselling Author | Founder of Publishous. Keep that smile.

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