Love. L-O-V-E. Four letters, one word. The phrase “I love you” dances on my tongue. The four letters can’t seem to escape from my mouth. Love, a complicated yet simple emotion. We are brought into this world and the first people we come to love is our parents, they show us an unconditional warmth. In a sense we are conditioned to love our parents, we don’t necessarily choose to the love them, we are just trained to.

Sounds weird when you think about. I mean, would you love your parents if they, in fact, weren’t your parents?

Love is strange. I’ve written many pieces on the idea, and after a recent conversation I have been inspired and have begun to consider the way I or even others look at love. How do you know when you love someone? I went through a phase in which I didn’t believe in love, it made no sense to me, I held it to an extreme expectation. In a way I still do. As I mentioned, it is a complex yet simple feeling.

With all the science and psychology behind the feeling that is to adore someone, it’s something I want to dive deeper into. Why do we love? Does everyone have a soulmate? Love at first sight? Real or just coincidences? Maybe I take it too seriously and it really isn’t as complex as it seems?

Love can be scary, for me it makes me vulnerable, the words “I love you” can’t leave my lips simply due to fear. What if they don’t love me back? What if it isn’t forever? Love is inevitable and so is heartbreak, I guess for me it just seems easier to dismiss the attachment to avoid what could end in disaster.

And what if it ends up being a beautiful story of romance? Exactly, we don’t know but it can be terrifying to put yourself out there. I know my heart isn’t the only one caged in, covered in caution tape.

“'Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” A quote that I’m sure we have all heard and one I can’t seem to accept. It just seems weird to me, to love someone and have it end in heartbreak? Sure maybe you were happy, the happiest you’d ever been maybe, but heartache is awful and, to me, it just seems odd. Why love to end in heartache? Would it not be better to never love at all and avoid the tragedy that is a broken heart?

So many questions, maybe too many. At this point, this has turned into a rant or ramble of words, if you will.

So I will leave you with this: love is as complicated as you make it. Love hard or not at all. At the end of the day to love someone is a choice, so make your choice and enjoy what could be the highlight of your life.