At 22 years old, I know enough about love to know the various things love is like. I've had my fair share of falling in and out of love, breaking someone's heart, letting someone break my heart, feeling amazing, crying myself to sleep at night etc. Basically, all the things you do when you're in and out of love with someone. And over the years, I've learned that there's different types of love. Like: The love you have for your parents is unconditional. Sometimes you wish they would leave you alone and never speak to you again, but you still love them just as much as you always have. Or pizza, that is an unconditional love as well.
Or that falling in love is a lot like standing on the line at an amusement park...which is the point of this whole article. Love is like standing in line for a roller coaster at an amusement park.
So you get to the line of this new and super cool roller coaster at your favorite amusement park. And the line is about two hours long (on a good day). So you stand at the end of the line, watching the people who have already been on the roller coaster walk past you. Some look thrilled, some look scared half to death and you can almost tell that that one dude threw up on the ride. And that's love. You either end up happy and excited or feeling like you got punched in the gut and your whole life has led up to nothing but crap. There is no in between.
So you stand on the line and try not to get nervous because the closer you get to the front, the more you can hear the screams of the people on the ride. You read the warning signs "not for people with weak hearts" and immediately start ticking off symptoms in your head. Pregnant? No. Weak heart? Well, a guy with a nice smile will do it. And you start to wonder if you were really built for this ride.
And then you get to the stairs and all you can think about is the fact that if you tried to turn around now, there would be a lot of pissed off people behind you, waiting for you to make a choice. So basically, you're in or you're out. And who wants to be the chump that waits on a two hour line just to turn around in terror? Definitely not you, that's for sure.
So you climb the stairs and sit in the seat, listening to the finality of the seat buckling and locking you in. Now, you're trapped and you're basically stuck until the ride ends. Or you can attempt to fling yourself from the roller coaster but if the relationship is really that bad, I suggest you find another more safe method of removing yourself from the situation. You slowly inch up to the first big drop and you can almost feel the anxiety sinking in, not knowing what's going to be over that drop until you get there.
And that's love. A series of ups and downs, loops and flips, intense pleasure and depressing anxiety. The highest highs and the lowest lows, and then it's over. Or maybe it's not over and you continue on the ride for a while longer.
Either way, this is love. This is your roller coaster.