Like last year, I want to shine a little bit of light on all different sorts of love this February with a Love Letters miniseries. Every Friday I’m featuring posts about love from some fabulous guest bloggers—and they’re not the typical boy meets girl, cue fireworks kind of love story. These stories show that love comes in all different shapes and sizes—and all of them should be celebrated. Today’s post is from Ferg of Hapless and Hopeless.

There comes a time when we are all left stranded alone on the intersection of love and life, and you question why the hell you put yourself through so much pain just to experience love. I’m not just talking about the love shared with a partner, but familial relationships and friendships too. Love is multifaceted and penetrates all aspects of our daily lives. As such, we all come to these crossroads at some point and have many tough decisions to make.

The bottom line is love hurts… It really sucks sometimes. Whether it’s the pain of being dumped, having to walk away from a friendship, or even the death of a loved one, you begin to tell yourself that life would be so much simpler if we didn’t love at all. And boy would you be right!