We all grew up watching and witnessing people love each other. We were toddlers obsessing over our favorite Disney movies like Cinderella, Snow White, and A Goofy Movie to name a few. Did we ever stop and think about why we loved those movies so much though? I think it was because they all portrayed some form of love. Whether it be the way Cinderella loved her Prince Charming, or the way Snow White loved her Seven Dwarfs. Or the way Goofy loved his son (even though he felt too old to be loved by his dad). Growing up, these types of movies introduced us to the concept of love.

Then, we got older and we started to stop thinking boys/girls had cooties and we started having those middle school crushes that made us feel those butterflies when we'd pass love notes in class without the teacher seeing and we'd rush home after school just so we could hurry up and get on AOL chat to chat with our crush before it was time for dinner. We wanted nothing more than to be with that person 24/7 and if we couldn't then we found some way to talk to them. You see, this is what we felt love was. But boy did we have some growing up/learning to do.

You see, love isn't only something that's portrayed to us in a fairytale or some feeling we get in our chest when we see them walking down the isles at our middle school. It's more than that. It's a longing for attention when we feel lonely. It's a selfless emotion that keeps our hearts racing and our minds running a million miles per hour. It's the senseless fights over where you're gonna go to eat for your date night. It's trying to pick which Redbox movie to watch because you want to watch a scary movie but he/she wants to watch something funny. It's about how you handle your first real fight over something stupid that makes you laugh when you look back on it in the future. It's the serious talks you have about your future and how each of you wants to see it play out. As you get older, love is so much more than a giddy feeling you get when you think about that person. It's a selfless, pure, crazy, wholehearted, what-am-I-getting-myself-into type of emotion that makes us crazy happy and just downright crazy all at the same time.

I've learned in my 22 years of life that when you experience something as amazing as true love, you don't let it go. You don't let anything or anyone come in the middle of that God-given gift. You fight for it, you cherish it, and you pray for/about it. You count yourself lucky for finding someone who sees the real you and doesn't let you feel any less than perfect (even though they know you're far from it). It seems like the farther we get into the 21st century, the farther away we get from feeling like we can find true love. This society turns love into something that seems only available in fiction books/movies. But let me tell you that if you're just patient, and you don't settle for anything less than what you deserve, then your Prince Charming/Princess will come, and at the perfect time. So honey, don't give up. Not on yourself, and certainly not on your own little fairytale.

Love is...patient & kind. It does not give up.