Books have always told me what romance should look like.

Sweeping gestures, grand confessions in the rain, and a love that feels like magic from the very first page. I have read it all, and in my own life, I have found something even better, and it is simply because it is real, meaningful and has made me the person that I am today.

Love is not just about the fireworks; it is the everyday devotion, the steady presence, and the shared courage to grow together.

At times, we read these books and think that the way love should be is simply swoon worthy and full of cute outfits, magical dates and laughter all day and every day.

While the stories might be full of conflict, complicated side characters, sudden mistakes and then a “happy ending” that fades to black and satisfies us as readers, there is more to real life love past the words on these pages.

While I adore these novels, those that make us think that everything turned out perfect once we finish them and place them back on our bookshelf, leading us to recommend it to others, I feel like real life love is one that takes work, yet also truly can compare to and inspire a lot of these stories.

For me, that love story is Sebastian and me. Only, that it is one that we work on every day, a story that has had many ups and downs and one where there are many more pages left to be written.

We met 20 years ago, two young dreamers with no idea of the life we would build together. Seventeen years of marriage later, on this Aug. 16, we have celebrated incredible highs and endured the hardest goodbyes, holding each other through grief and finding joy again in the memories of those we have lost.

Love, I have learned, is not just about looking into each other’s eyes; it is about facing the world side by side, through every storm and every sunrise.

While sunrises are certainly beautiful, not every day is going to be full of the joy that watching one brings. Every day is different, and there are always surprises that greet us, and these are not always going to make our journey easy.

While authors like Ali Hazelwood and Christina Lauren write the types of books with romance that jumps off the pages with extremely relatable characters, there is always an end to that story, or series. Even if the characters stay with us always.

We also definitely never forget that one book boyfriend that we might have met while reading. Leading us to seek our own romance and possible happy conclusion of our own.

For Sebastian and me, there was a start, a middle, and we are still drafting the story of our relationship.

Not every moment is perfect, but every moment matters. Every single one where we learn something new leads to growth and lessons in our relationship.

Over two decades, we have built a life full of travel, laughter, and a shared love of being nerdy and having fun at comic cons. He has cheered me on at every turn, whether I was chasing deadlines in a newsroom or stepping onto a convention panel stage.

And when I found myself unexpectedly drawn to teaching, first at FIU, and now at Florida Atlantic University and the University of Florida, plus Boca High, he noticed how much lighter I became. He encouraged me to take the leap, to leave the grind of full-time newspaper and magazine work for a career that filled my days with creativity, connection, and less stress.

That leap has led me to awards, new adventures, and the chance to inspire the next generation, accomplishments I never would have reached without his faith in me.

This is my love letter and thank you to Sebastian: for making me stronger, for helping me see myself when I felt lost, and for never letting me forget my worth.

In the pages of my life, you are my greatest plot twist, my most constant character, and the reason I know that love, real love, is not just something to read about. It is real, at times messy, and at times challenging.

I would not have it any other way. And I cannot wait to write the rest of our chapters together.

I might still have a book boyfriend or two. But you will always be the one.