There is a story waiting to be told, of a boy and a girl who fell in love. They kept it a secret for they knew no one would approve, and they were right. They kept it that way for almost a year before the girl's parents found out; they of course said it was inappropriate and forced them to end it. It's understandable though right, I mean who wants their 17-year-old daughter to be with a 22-year-old boy? When they explained it to the girl though, they said if she was 20 and he was 26, it wouldn't have been a big deal. She agreed, but the question still remained....would that really make a difference?
In his 1822 treatise "On Love," Stendhal says "Love is like a fever which comes and goes quite independently of the will. … there are no age limits for love." So because the girl is under 18, it's inappropriate, but once she's over 18, it's not? Why is that? When did we start letting our age limit us on who we can and can't date or love? We all have different opinions on the definition of love, but the dictionary states it being a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. Nowhere in that definition does it say anything about a person's age.
So who determines that we are too young or too old, that our ages are too far apart....who makes these decisions? Who is to judge what is right or wrong? Why is 20 and 26 okay, but 17 and 22 not? What is the difference? There is no difference, it's the same age gap. So why is one okay and the other not? That is what's wrong with us in this generation, we are so focused on what others think that we don't even realize we are hurting ourselves and each other. In a "Midsummer's Night Dream," Shakespeare said "Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind." By the time the boy and girl realized they were no longer talking as just friends, it was too late to turn around. They had already fallen in love with what was on the inside that it didn't matter what was on the outside, what their age was or what others would think. Isn't that what love is and how it works?
I hear that some people don't get to experience love once in their whole life, so when some of us actually do get to experience that knee-weak, get butterflies every time you see or touch them kind of feeling, we shouldn't take that for granted by breaking up and getting back together with whoever, or cheating on whoever because you really like them but don't want to hurt or let them go. Let them go. In my opinion the whole reason of dating is to find that one person you're going to marry, no matter what age you are. That is still the goal. So when you get that feeling or find it hold onto it as tight as you can, because you never know when it will be taken from you.
