Scrolling through my Twitter feed and seeing never-ending #relationshipgoals, or watching the idealized Hollywood versions of dating and marriages depicted in every romantic comedy that has been released in the past 20 years almost saddens me. We, as a generation, have almost become blind to what should actually make up a healthy and true romantic relationship.

You do not need to be written a letter every day for a year. You do not need someone to stand outside of your bedroom window with a stereo on his shoulders professing his love for you. And you certainly do not need to have matching his and hers t-shirts to wear around to exclaim your relationship.

At the end of the day, these are merely surface level acts of affection and not necessarily needed to prove any amount of love.

I really and truly believe that our generation's mindset and perspective on relationships has been unfairly, however unintentionally, narrowed to this Hollywood and social-mediated depiction of what love is supposed to be.

While it took me 19 years to come to this realization, I began shifting my perspective while visiting my grandparents in Omaha, Nebraska over this past winter break.

My grandparents have been married for 65 years, and I can honestly voice that I have never seen a love so authentic and so strong.

A few years ago, my grandma was diagnosed with Alzheimer's; and throughout the past few years, her memory and her physical abilities have severely deteriorated. At 91 years old, she has forgotten the identity of her loved ones and is only able to stay awake for at most 2 or 3 hours a day.

In those two or three hours, though, she only spends about an hour with my grandpa. And however heartbreaking it may be for my grandpa to witness the love that he has spent the last 65 years with slowly collapse, he looks at her with a stronger love and more gratitude than I have ever seen illustrated in any romantic comedy. She may not always understand who he is, but you can tell that even something as small as him holding her hand during their lunchtime meal sparks a small light in her.

Through the heartache and distress that the past few years have presented them with, the genuine sparkle my grandpa gets in his eyes every time he sees my grandma has not lessened in the slightest. While the hour or so of time they receive with each other is simply spent sitting in each other's presence listening to classical music, holding one another's hands through meals, or my grandpa telling her old stories in a hopeless attempt to jog her memory, these moments are enough for him because they are spent with her.

All he needs is her.

So don't look for the love advertised in these glorified movies; don't look for the love displayed throughout your twitter feed with a superficial hashtag. Look for the love that will stand by your side, that may not even need a conscious acknowledgement, for 65 years.