What is love to you? What does it mean? When you hear “love”, do you think of a person, a place, a thing? Is it a feeling? An emotion? A reaction? Is it all of those things? Is it conditional? Unconditional?
Yes…and no.
Love is a commitment. Whether we’re talking about a friend, or someone more special, the meaning of the word remains relatively unchanged. Love means that no matter what happens, that you choose to love them unconditionally. No strings attached. If your friend got in trouble, and you abandon them to fend for themselves, were you really friends? Probably not.
Loving is easy, being in love is hard.
Have you ever looked at someone and thought that they were “the one"? Probably. For comparison, let's look at two sentences. “I love my car” and “I love her”. Love has two very different meanings in both these sentences, doesn’t it? If I say I love my car, that doesn’t mean I want to marry it, does it? Of course not! On the other hand, if I say “I love her", that might mean I would want to marry her.
Also, if you say that you love someone, whether as a friend, or something more, that's a choice you’ve made. As mentioned earlier, love is a commitment. Love should not be a word you just throw around lightly.
Lastly, I want to mention the problem with “if” conditional. Have you ever said “if she has blue eyes…” or “if she has long hair…” or “if she wears heels…”, then you might be guilty of saying the word “if” too much. Putting people into a box will not help your relationship status. And if someone changes their appearance, and they don’t fit into your “if” conditional list, then what?
In summary, love is great (yes, I said it again). Whether it's brotherly love, the love you have for a friend, or if it's the love you have for “the one". Love comes in all shapes and sizes, literally.