Time and time again I hear people complain about the millennial generation and how we completely suck at love. We get judged on how we go about dating, falling in love, and the general aspects of love. We must have gotten these ideas of dating from somewhere. Something must have happened to cause us to be so terrible at love.

Clearly, things have changed. There’s no denying it. Technology is everywhere and it’s taken a toll on the dating world. We are affected by social media and what we put out for others to see. We believe that there needs to be a certain image of us out there and that we need to present our relationships as if they are perfect. We have turned love into something more physical rather than emotional and we can deny it all we want — but that affects how we fall in love.

Though our dating style is controversial and often looked at as deteriorating, there is still something there. This modern love we have now still has specks of old fashion in it. People still want those butterflies in their stomach. They still want to feel. We aren’t a generation of numb, we crave human connection. We crave to find someone that understands us and our needs. We strive for good even if sometimes we end up doing all the wrong things.

So how does the old fashion take part in the modern world of love? First off, there is still communication in relationships. If anything, we have made it easier to communicate. Technology has helped people stay in touch and has helped speed up communication. Now if you’re in a long distance relationship, it’s easier to talk to someone rather than waiting for days on end to receive their letter. This also has its bad side because people do not appreciate that communication as much as others do, but the communication is still there. We are training ourselves to open up and to understand others. The way one gets to know someone is through communication and we have easy access to that.

There is this idea of us being afraid of commitment. No, this idea is not far from the truth. We are guilty of pushing away certain people in defense of ourselves and protection of our feelings. We don't want to be hurt and that leads us to act out in other aspects of our lives. Our generation sleeps around and plays with the emotions of others to hide the possibility of falling for someone. But that does not always last. We eventually find that person that we no longer want to hide from. We decide to give in and we fall in love. We might not have the best way of doing it, but we wait until we feel we have the right person and it is the right time to settle down and commit to someone.

Now, our dating style might be seen as awful. I mean for goodness sake, we have stopped asking people out on dates and have turned to just "hanging out". We use apps to meet new people and that is just seen as absurd. But even if we are changing our ways of meeting new people and dating, we are still trying to find new people. We are still out trying to make connections and putting in an effort to find something real.

There are still people that ask others on dates. There are guys that still open doors for girls, and the ones that ask to kiss you before they do. Just because on the surface of our generation it all seems bad, does not mean that is. It does not mean that there is no hope for us and love. There will always be people who are willing to wait and those who are willing to put in work to make it the relationship. There are those who still ask you if you want to grab some coffee and even those people who meet their love while grocery shopping.

We adapted our love to the way that the world has evolved. Our love is still love, we have just tried to find a way to make it ours. Our generation may no longer follow the old rules, but we have had to make our own. We still feel love, we aren't a generation composed of nothing. There is still romance and those who like the thought of showing it.