How naive were you in your first relationship?

During my first days In relationships I had a lot of fantasies,maybe I watched a lot of Hindi movies, I expected all the world to stand still just to watch me be loved. Little did I know I was entering into a very dangerous zone, my boyfriend wasn't into me as much, I loved loudly but he was so adamant about it, I gave all my energy and little experience from Hindi movies he received it and brushed it off , poor me I thought all this was just love only to realize he was exploring all kinds of girls, loud,simple,sexy, village girls,city buddies, campus girls, corporate girls, I had the worst first time anyone could ever have because why would I start fixing broken relationship where I dated myself , I know better now you give as much as you receive.

In my first relationship, I was not just naive — I was dangerously poetic about it.

I thought love was a contract written in permanence. That if I loved purely, loyally, and with my whole chest, it would automatically be returned in the same currency. I didn't understand that people can love you to the best of _their_ capacity, and their best can still leave you starving.

I made the most naive assumption of all: that love was enough. That trust was automatic once you said "I love you." That communication meant talking every day, not actually telling the truth. I thought intensity was intimacy. I thought jealousy was proof of passion. I thought if I could just fix the bad days, we would earn the good ones.

I missed every red flag because I was painting them red myself and calling it art.

The late replies that turned into 24-hour silences? I called it "she's busy."
The constant need to explain myself to be believed? I called it "compromise."
The feeling that I was walking on eggshells so she wouldn't pull away? I called it "learning how to love someone."

What I believed was simple: two people meet, they like each other, they promise forever, and forever happens.

What reality taught me was far more complicated: that love is not just a feeling, it's a skill. That trust is not given, it's built in inches and lost in miles. That some people don't know how to receive the love you give because they never learned how to hold it without breaking it. And that sometimes, the most loving thing two people can do is to let go of the fantasy that love alone can make them compatible.

I went in a boy who thought love was a fairytale.

I came out a man who understood love is a garden. It doesn't survive on words and promises. It survives on daily, boring, consistent work. And if only one person is watering it, it will die no matter how beautiful it once was.