At the beginning of this past summer, I took a trip to Chicago with my best friend. One of the popular modes of transportation that we used was a taxi-like service called “Lyft.” The driver of one of the Lyft cars kept a notebook in the back seat with the words “Love Is…” described on the front, and kindly asked us to write what love meant to us on the inside. I poetically wrote about my friends, coffee, parks and puppies. After I scanned the rest of the pages to see what the other people of Chicago had to say about love, the responses filled my heart with happiness. Some wrote about simple activities that make them happy while others wrote about the person sitting next to them. I think that often when we think of love we picture happy couples, soft kisses, and romantic songs, but there’s so much more to it than that.

1. Your first love isn’t the boy from 9th grade

The first kind of love that we experience is from our family. I am forever thankful for my family’s support through everything that I do. I am especially grateful for the irreplaceable love that my sister has shown me. She still loves me when I’m making another lame joke, crying over One Direction, or angry over something dumb that shouldn’t bother me. I think the love that you receive from your family sets the foundation of how you’ll accept and receive love for the rest of your life. Finding people who understand how your love works is hard, which is why I am grateful that I have found it.

I don’t think I’ll ever know what I did in life to deserve the love that I receive from my friends. They love me when I’m at my best and know what to say when I’m at my worst. This is something that I will never take for granted.

2. Fall in love with yourself

I don't know how I would have ever lived without the love of my friends, but I think life would be even harder if I hadn’t learned how to love myself. Self-love is often neglected and it is believed that you need someone to love you to make your broken pieces mend together. Love should first, come from within. I think that if you only look for others to tell you how great you are, you are missing out on a lot.

For me, learning to love who I am has been a long journey that I still have not reached the end of. I used to have a lot of insecurities about how I presented my personality to people, about what my body image looked like, and my incredible lack of patience. Once I started to address those problems and realized that I’m only as great as I present myself to be, things changed for the better. I started looking in the mirror and cherishing the imperfections on my face, body and in my mind. I started taking time out of each day to realize that absolute perfection is not achievable and I’m a work in progress every day. Once I became more self-aware and told myself that I was great and capable of love, I really began to believe it too.

Don’t get me wrong, love from other people is important too, but nothing beats the feeling of becoming self-aware about how awesome you are. I think it is embedded into our society that confidence and self-love are unattainable and that you are vain if you can say, “Heck yes I love my appearance and dashing personality.” We are always comparing ourselves to other people and living to other people's standards, and I think that should end.

I challenge you to look beyond what you want for your future life and instead, start loving the life you live right now. Aspirations are necessary for growth, but that doesn’t mean you are not allowed to love yourself in the now. It’s important to own your flaws. Once you are self-aware and love the person you are, no one can ever tell you you’re not good enough because you should know that you are more than enough.

3. Maybe Love Songs are Right

Ed Sheeran said it best in his song "Photograph": “Loving can hurt sometimes, but it’s the only thing that I know.” I don’t think I have ever heard more true words. Loving people and yourself is hard. Love involves vulnerability, forgiveness, patience, and passion. It is hard enough to feel those emotions for other people, let alone feel them about yourself. Despite all of this, I think love is still the most powerful force in the world. The love of a caregiver is how your grandmother might get through her day. The love of a gardener is why the scenery of your local park is breathtaking. The love of your friends is what calms you down when you’re at your worst. The love you have for yourself makes you calm even when your situation isn’t exactly the way you want it to be. As naive and cheesy as it sounds, I really do believe that love and compassion serve as the answer to almost everything. Find love in everyone and in everything you do, and you will see the world in a brighter form.