Michael has always made me feel loved even in times when I couldn’t love myself. It is an unconditional non-judgemental love. A love you’d think you’d only get from your partner or family. A love that's made me feel whole. He has always seen the good in me, even in times when we have talked about things that could have easily been looked at as “bad” or could be said that “I’m a bad person”.

It has taken me a little while to write this. It is hard to put into words the effect Mike has had on my life, from age 14 to now 28. It has been hard for me to put into words because he has helped me so much to stop over thinking and start feeling, to be more present in my body and in everyday life. So for me to try to put into words how he has freed me in so many ways seems limiting. He has helped me see the light in myself and in others.

I could always count on him, I could always trust he would be there to listen, in a non-judgmental and caring way. Not in a way where he would tell me “I’m right” because that’s probably what I wanted to hear, but in an honest way. A way that I would have no doubt that what he's saying is his truth. And I think that’s the most important thing someone can do for you, to be their whole hearted truest self around you. He has done that with me and no doubt everyone he encounters, and by doing that, by being his truest self around me, he has made me comfortable to be my truest self, which is absolutely freeing.

By making me comfortable enough to be my truest self it has allowed me to feel that freeness in other aspects of my life even when he’s not there. He’s allowed me to know myself. He’s taught me how to love myself, and to nurture my true self. He’s allowed me to meet myself with unconditional love, to have compassion for myself in my shortcomings, and to be able to rejoice in my gifts and accomplishments, to see who I truly am, the “good and bad”, and be able to love and accept all of it.