For a RELATIONSHIP to really work, you gotta understand this: You and your partner are TWO different people, with two different pasts, trying to build ONE future. You didn't grow up the same, you won't always think the same, and that's okay. What matters is HOW you handle it. Communicate without turning everything into an argument. Listen even when you're frustrated. Stop keeping score and start choosing growth. Because every disagreement shouldn't create distance. It should build understanding
Whatever you do, make friends with people who actually like themselves and their own lives. Because miserable people always end up hating on what you have.
Imagine growing up in absolute dirt poverty in east Tennessee, daughter of a tobacco farmer, going to school wearing rags your mother stitched into a coat, and when you die the British royal family has its military band play your up-the-workers country-pop anthem in tribute.
Your relationship with yourself cannot be built entirely around improvement. At some point, you have to become someone you are allowed to enjoy being. You get to be proud of who you are. Present tense.