By Samantha Jenkins:
Did you know that it only takes up to 4 minutes to decide whether you like someone or not? Once you realize you like someone, what changes ‘like’ to ‘love’? The first definition in the dictionary summarizes love accurately: “an intense feeling of deep affection.” Simply, love is what someone feels. Every form of love is different yet similar at the same time, such as love for a spouse, for a friend or for a child. There is the mutual feeling of emotion that creates bonds amongst us humans. However, is there more to love than just the emotion it stirs within us?
My first recollection of feeling love was for my family. As I grew up, I felt love for my myself, friends, pets and eventually boys. Having your first boyfriend is like being on a rollercoaster for the first time; you don’t know what to expect but you enjoy every moment of it. I thought I knew what love felt like and man, did I think it felt great. Looking back, I had no idea what was coming my way throughout the next five years. I had no idea that I was going to be hurt one too many times to count. Or that I was going to be crying over some boy because I was too young to realize my own self-worth. Over time, as I matured and found myself, I see love in a different way. Love is not just a feeling; love is an act. What I didn’t realize at the young age of 18 in a high school relationship was that the act of love wasn’t being reciprocated back to me. This is why love is so misinterpreted.
Love holds powerful meaning as everyone reading this probably knows through experience. The three words, “I love you” have left my mouth before. They left my mouth when I knew deep down they didn’t hold the truth. These three words have also been said to me but were proven through action to not be true. Everyone is familiar with relationships that have maybe lingered on a few months too long because of emotions that are confused with love. I can say this has been me before. My friends and family knew that the relationship wasn’t healthy, that it wouldn’t last. The reason why we stayed together was because we were basing love off of emotion, whereas everyone around me was basing it off of actions. Love can bring great happiness and it can also bring great pain. But at the end of the day, everyone deserves to love and to be loved. And it is worth waiting for if you haven’t truly found it yet. Until then, I am learning to fall in love with myself. I am making lasting memories with friends that I love. And I get to live in NYC, a city that I will always love.
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