She used to allow Life to take her anywhere it wanted her to go, because the whole world was out there waiting, and she was excited to experience any part of it. Until, all of the sudden, it took advantage of her naivete and brought her in a direction she didn't want anything to do with. Without her parents standing just on the shore, always ready to toss her a line, the waters got a lot rougher and she wasn't so crazy about going with the flow.
She was desperately clinging to a rock, gripping it with all she had because Life was trying to take her away and she didn't want to go.
Stefan was her rock. She looked at him and saw stability and loyalty. It comforted her in the way nothing else could, and that was exactly what she needed. To her last dying breath, she would be grateful for that rock, for him, and how he appeared when he did. That he was suddenly there right when she was about to give up and let go. If not for him, she would have been whisked away and sent tumbling down with the waterfall, where she'd either break, or be tossed around so violently that there would be nothing left to break.
Oh, how she loved her rock.
But he was different. He dove off the highest of cliffs, swam right up and floated effortlessly beside her. He straight up told her that her rock was stupid (a sad excuse for a rock, really), and ripped her away from it. And at first, maybe she hated him. How dare he put distance between her and her stability, leaving her to paddle hopelessly while the world pulled and pushed her mercilessly?
But before she knew it, she was treading water. He held her lightly by the hand, but cleverly kept it hidden beneath the surface where no one would see, and smirked deviously even when getting soaked to the bone. He pointed out how amazing the rush could be if you looked at it the right way. But, by that point, she was too distracted by him to pay attention to anything as trivial as Life.
To her last dying breath, she would be grateful that Stefan came when he did. To her last dying breath, she would love him for it. But the moment her lungs ceased to work and her heart stopped beating, she would be grateful Damon had pulled her out of the water.
"Life's overrated," he told her on her first day of being eternally seventeen.
Stefan had been her rock, but Damon had given her the strength to swim against the current.