From a very young age we use the word love. Whether it's with our parents, our friends, celebrities, the person we're dating, or even our favorite food, the word love tends to be the word we go to for a description of how we feel about people or things. I feel like to love something or someone you have a be willing to die for it. You don't love pizza. You really like pizza. A soldier loves this country; they don't just really like it. I feel like in today's society we throw the word love around left and right without even thinking about what we're saying. This trend that is occurring more and more is probably what is responsible for this generations messed up way of dating people. You forget how to actually love something or someone because you're telling the person you're dating you love them after two days of dating them.
I remember when I was younger someone said, "Don't say you love someone unless you'd wipe their butt if they couldn't do it themselves." This always rings in my head when I say I love someone. I have friends and family I would throw myself in front of a bullet for because I would rather die myself than let anything ever happen to them.
TV and movies make love seem so clean and easy, but it's not. Love is staying up until the person you love gets home or taking care of them when they're too sick to get out of bed. Love can be fun. It can be date nights, kisses, and cute pictures, but don't confuse a fun person with love. Another issue I see in a lot of young relationships is the confusion of lust and love. It's fun to have someone to kiss and hug on, but the fact you find someone "hot" does not mean you love them. If you get bored with someone, you probably never loved them in the first place.
Another thing people don't understand is you can love someone, but they may not be the right person for you. Sometimes they may decide you're not the right person for them. This is the hardest part of love and relationships I feel like. For instance, you could love your boyfriend or girlfriend but they might be mean and super abusive. You have to love yourself more. The first thing they will say is probably, "See, you never loved me. You're leaving me." That's not true no matter how many times they say it. The truth is they probably never loved you.
The reason people don't understand love is hard to explain, but I think a lot of it comes from the fact people have forgotten how to love themselves. They spend so much time worshipping celebrities on social media that when they look in the mirror they see an imperfect human. People need to be reminded constantly that they are perfect the way they are. You have to love yourself enough to trust someone who really loves you. Find someone to love that loves everything about you and who you are as a person. Find someone who doesn't want you to change.
