As far as we know, the deepest connection you can feel with someone is love. While there are different types of love (the love I have for my family is not the same type of love I have for my boyfriend), why has no one dug a little deeper to create a word that means much more than just loving someone. The ultimate love. All the time I hear people saying, “I love you more than words can say.” That wouldn’t be necessary if a deeper word was created. I know the question can be seen as rhetorical, but I mean it in a literal sense. You could go for the stereotypical answer of saying that you’re supposed to show the people you love that you love them through actions, but what is the name for that?

When describing your love for someone, the need to attach a distance or a value to the end feels necessary. For example, saying “I love you to the moon and back” or, “I love you, so much” just so we can feel that the love you have for someone is more than just love. They are justifiable, and make my heart pitter-patter just as equally, but it feels like there should be so much more to say. One of my favorite childhood memories is when my granny would stretch her arms out as far as she could and say, “I love you this much.” I know I would never trade those memories, but now that I’m older and I appreciate her love and wisdom so much more, my love for her is greater than that much but I don’t know how to say it.

If such a word was created, I’m sure in time, it would be thrown around and mistreated like “love” is today. But, if love wasn’t mistreated like it is, the need for a deeper word wouldn’t exist. Overall, when I tell the people I love that I love them, I truly feel it. But when you say it enough times, does it get lazy? And I am just as guilty for abbreviating “I love you” in texts to my parents as the next girl, but can we quit that as a society? Ily, Lya, Ly2, luv u, etc., are all examples of things I’m starting to avoid. The way I see it, we have two options. We could create a new word, or we could stop over using the word love. When someone creates a word truly describe the length and the depth of our love, I’m jumping on that train as quickly as possible.

As for now, I suppose I’ll have to settle with “I love you” and “I love you, so much.” But I don’t want to settle. My family, friends, and boyfriend deserve more than that, as do I.

To my family and friends, “I love you more than words can say.”

To my boyfriend, “I love you, so much, and even more than words can say.”

Hopefully, there will be a word someday to show you how I truly feel.