She told me to wait.

I'm only 19 years old so I think I still don't know shit about love or life.

But, lucky me I have the most humble, wittiest, kind and beautiful inside and out Lola (grandmother) in this world, I call her Inay. And she taught me a couple things about love since I was very little:

She's just the cutest Lola ever, right?

She was not very fond of me having any boyfriend, because she'd always tell me that nobody really deserves me. She told me to wait, she told me to be patient, that there will be many boys that will try to steal my heart, but only one is worthy of it.

She was always very protective of me, because she knows I'm easy to hurt, she knows my weaknesses, she's seen me grown and she knows that I don't trust people easily, so she told me to wait, because not everybody will understand my feelings and actually respect it. She told me to wait, because she told me the one that I deserve is the one that will do everything to earn that trust.

She would always remind me to be myself, I remember when i was 16 and we called her via facetime and she said "ang totoong lalaki, iibigin ka kung ano ka, kahit di ka nagsusuklay" (a real man will love you as you are, even though you never comb your hair.) Because I told her I had a crush on someone, but he was out of my reach and I felt like a sack of potato. So she told me to wait, and thank God I did, because it turns out he was a douchebag.

She told me that loving means sacrifice, if a guy really likes me, he'll go through flames, swim oceans, move mountains just to be with me. If he really wants me, he'll be brave enough to tell her or my family that he loves me, and that he wants to be part of our life. So she told me to wait, because not every man will do that for me (or anyone).

She always tells me I'm beautiful, but she told me to wait. The person who deserves me will see me as the most beautiful girl in the world and will only have eyes for me. But also, he'll see more than just that physical beauty, he'll love me for how I speak, how I eat, how I sleep... he'll know my favourite song, he'll know that I'm scared of thunder, he'll know how I like my eggs in the morning, he'll know what pisses me off, he'll know what comforts me. But most importantly, he'll fall in love for how I treat him and other people and for how I think. So she told me to wait. Remember girls, a king only bows down to his queen.

She said a woman who knows how to cook will be loved even more by men. But a woman who can't cook will be loved by THAT man. And by that I think she meant that he'll do things that he's not normally used to be doing for the woman he loves, or if she cooks him a meal and even though it tastes very bad he'll say it's the most delicious food he's ever tried, and that's true love. She never told me to wait on this one, because maybe she was just trying to not make me feel bad about the fact that I can't cook, but hey, it's still cute so I'll add it here.

I promised her I would wait because she's very traditional and you know, she likes her granddaughter to be courted at home, she wants it the old way. But there's this one thing she said to me on my 18th birthday, we were alone in my hotel room, and I told my whole family that there was this boy I really liked and that he was courting me. She liked him, and she's ver much fond of him, she knew him since he was little. She didn't tell me to wait that time, because I think she saw how much I really liked him, so she told me something like: "don't let him love you less than how we love you. He may not see you the way we see you, one day he may stop loving you, but were here, we won't ever stop loving you. Because a woman like you happens once in a blue moon, that's why your parents were very protective of you. And to be honest, there is only one man who REALLY deserves you: the one who thinks he doesn't. Because he'll love you more and treasure you like you're the most valuable thing in this world".

So please, know your worth, never settle for less, people may not understand why you're so "picky" on men, or why you get mad on something so little, or why you don't have a boyfriend. Love is not a race, and it shouldn't hurt. We will all win, and if you're hurt, it just means you haven't won yet.

So, where were we? oh yes, just wait.

Believe me, it will be worth the wait.