“Love,” a word that is thrown around more than we even notice; the word those teenagers and young adults think they feel and think they know if/when they have found it. We have all been there, embracing that feeling of being in love with someone else. Do people truly know when or even if they are in love? I am not here to tell you what love is because deep down I don’t even understand the term myself. When I experienced love, it was when I would look at that certain someone and feel my stomach flip, my palms get sweaty and a numb feeling throughout my body. That person was my world (or so I thought), until they broke my heart. I feel like we all have had experience in our lives where our hearts were shattered by that certain someone who was our everything, which makes us question our self-worth, trust, and our ability to love or be loved. People say constantly “I am so in love,” but how do they know that is what love feels like?

I picture love like shopping, when you see a dress or a pair of shoes that makes you squeal inside and all you want is that dress, and once you get that dress you won’t want another one because that is your favorite dress. It fits you perfectly and goes with every color and every season. So how can we fall in love with an object, or an item but not fall deep in love with a person, another lovable soul? It is so hard for us as a generation to fall in love and even accept that we feel so strongly about someone because of the constant fear of being betrayed, that we put our guard up which makes us unable to open our hearts up to someone and seriously let them in. Like I said, I am not writing to tell you what love is, but if I had to speak for the general young adult population, we view love as something which takes the relationship to the next level. It’s like once someone says to their certain someone “I love you” for the first time, their whole world has flipped and they feel a difference in their connection. Isn’t that upsetting, that we feel like that has to be said out loud for us to feel like the relationship has gotten stronger? The term “love” has been built up to become a bigger concept than needed to be perceived as. I feel that if we all just took a step back, stopped wanting and craving to feel or to say the word “love” out loud, one may be able to truly find out what love is. I know that to be able to love someone else you need to truly be in love with yourself, and that I can promise you. That is being able to look at yourself in the mirror, no makeup and hair a mess and saying “I love who I am,” loving all your imperfections, trusting yourself, being loyal to yourself and not wanting to be anyone else.

Versuade Pakistan – Fareeha Robert