Josephine and the Love She Was Afraid to Choose

(Blog – Josephine’s Perspective)

Josephine used to believe love came with rules she wasn’t allowed to bend.

She told herself she needed distance from disability to feel safe. That loving someone who lived with similar challenges would only magnify her own. She didn’t call it fear. She called it being realistic. Practical. Careful.

But what Josephine didn’t realize at the time was that this belief didn’t come from truth.
It came from years of being watched, measured, underestimated, and told—directly or indirectly—what kind of life was “possible” for someone like her.

So she made quiet promises to herself.
She would love, but not too closely.
She would dream, but not too big.
She would keep disability at arm’s length—even from her own heart.

And then love showed up anyway.

It arrived first in familiar places, wrapped in shared history and understanding. Some connections taught her that love doesn’t need romance to be real. That someone can walk beside you for a lifetime without ever becoming “the one,” and still matter deeply.

Then love asked more of her.

It came with effort, patience, and vulnerability. It challenged how Josephine thought intimacy was supposed to work. Communication wasn’t easy. Nothing about it was effortless. But it was honest. And through that honesty, she learned that closeness isn’t built on convenience—it’s built on willingness.

And still, she told herself this wasn’t the kind of love that would last.

The last love came quietly. Slowly. Over years of almosts and not-yets. It didn’t rush her. It didn’t demand that she choose before she was ready. It waited until Josephine had done some healing of her own.

By the time she recognized it, something inside her had already shifted.

She was no longer trying to outrun her disability.
She was no longer afraid of being mirrored.
She was no longer shrinking herself to make love feel safer.

Josephine learned something she never expected:
loving people who understood disability from the inside didn’t limit her life.

It expanded it.

What she once believed would double her challenges actually softened them. What she feared would define her instead helped her feel seen. And what she thought she had to escape became the very place where love felt most real.

Josephine didn’t stop believing in love because it was hard.
She stopped believing in the rules that told her it wasn’t meant for her.

And in doing so, she found a truth she now carries with her:

The disability was never the barrier.
The fear of being seen was.

Josephine’s Gratitude

Josephine is grateful for the love that waited.
For the connections that didn’t rush her healing.
For the people who reflected parts of herself she once tried to hide.

And most of all, she is grateful that she finally allowed herself to believe this:

Love doesn’t require distance from who you are.
It requires honesty.