Understand

I had a very different view of you then. You were mysterious, you were strong, you were curious but unafraid. You were sure. Even when you were uncertain, you knew you didn't know and you also knew you would figure it out. You exuded confidence. You were everything I wanted to be so, naturally, I found it - and you - very attractive.
Mind you, I still find those things attractive. Only now, it's more because I've found some semblance of those things within myself rather than pining over them in another.
It's just that I've come to know you better. I discovered that you are, in fact, fallible. I discovered this before we dated, but after I'd realized I was in love with what I'd made you out to be in my mind. I believed I was in love with you, but I was much more in love with the idea of you. I took the things I loved about you and made them your entire being, utterly ignoring what made up the rest of you that didn't fit into my picture.
That's not to say I never loved you. I did and I do. But I have since overcome my love of - and need for - the ideal in favor of becoming the strength and confidence I require from others.