Powerful. Camila Cabello revealed she has “learned a lot about love” from her boyfriend, Shawn Mendes, in a sweet PDA-filled post on Saturday, November 28.

“It’s not just the happy blissful moments you see in pictures and videos,” the 23-year-old captioned a photo of herself and the 22-year-old kissing on the beach. “When you’re in a relationship with someone, it feels like they are this mirror reflecting yourself back to you. I constantly have to confront my fears, my anxieties, my insecurities, my patterns of thinking, my beliefs about life and about myself. It’s not as simple as it looks in pictures sometimes. Sometimes, it’s messy and uncomfortable and ugly LOL.”

The former Fifth Harmony member continued, “But there’s nothing like the pull, the FORCE that is love, to be the light in the darkness. To be the gravitational pull that gives you the relentless strength to be braver, wiser and better than you were yesterday. It’s so instinctive for us to love, even if our minds try to protect us from it sometimes, but our nature as humans is to love. And to be in love means to choose that person over and over again, to go through the messy stuff with. And that’s way more beautiful and raw and real than perfection”

The Cuban native concluded her heartfelt caption by noting love might seem flawless online, but that its imperfections are what make it worthwhile. “I’m all for being vulnerable on social media because I think only the neatness and perfection of life is shown on here — and that can make us all feel extra lonely and weird,” Camila said. “So raise your glass to the messiness and weirdness of being human and the miracle. And the easiness. And the instinct. And the relentless force that is love.”

Camila and Shawn sparked romance rumors in July 2019, when they were spotted holding hands and locking lips on a street corner in New York City and in a swimming pool in Miami . In late August 2019, the “Stitches” singer confirmed he was in a relationship with the former girl-bander. Days earlier, the couple performed their steamy duet “Senorita” together at the MTV Video Music Awards.

In November 2019, Camila opened up about the beginning of their romance, which seemingly took place years before they made it official. The “Havana” singer said she “really bonded” with Shawn “as more than a friend” in 2015 while working on “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and was sure “he did too” — but they were both “really young.” She also noted Shawn was “experiencing the pressures of his career,” which got in the way. “I don’t think we knew what to do with those feelings,” she told Rolling Stone. “It was this awkward thing where we both liked each other, but we weren’t together.”

The pair quarantined together amid the coronavirus pandemic in the spring and seem to be going as strong as ever. “Despite their busy careers, they’ve spent much of the past year together. They were in love and were best friends — they still are,” an insider told In Touch in August. “The past year was a whirlwind for them and they supported each other so much.”