Love has always been a problem for this little girl. All she has ever searched for is this single word. She has dreamed for this feeling all her life.
Although she is young, Kelsey is always searching. One day when Kelsey was three, she thought she had found this four letter word. For more than ten years she believed this. She had her heart in her little hand and gave it to the man. He abused this privilege. He jerked it around and sometimes stomped on it. When this happened, Kelsey was sad and angry. One day after taking her heart away for a few weeks, he brought it back all battered and torn. He threw it back at the little girl and went on his way. The little despised giving her heart to him. But she held her worn heart tightly and kept moving along.
Not too long after, Kelsey found another man to give her heart to or so she thought. He told her he would keep in touch. But quickly soon after she realized his words were also a lie. He mailed it back even more frayed than the previous holder.
Kelsey felt hopeless. She did not know what to do with her heart. She held it tightly but felt that no one would want a heart so beaten as hers was. For an entire year, she hid her heart from everyone that came close to her. Then one day a boy saw her heart, although not new, seemed new and redeemed. She spent so much time with her heart’s keeper, and loved every moment with him. Then one day he acted as if he didn’t want her heart anymore. So he confronted her. He admitted to taking her heart and abusing it. Just like the others, he too, was a liar. Little Kelsey was officially done with trying to search for someone to hold her heart. She was tired of being hurt and thrown around. She didn’t want to live another day having to worry about her heart, or its keeper. She was through.
The 360 West Project 
As a teen and youg adult, I experienced this same intense dispairing for love so beautifully expressed by Kelsey. Thank you for sharing this story.