Day 05 – Your definition of love, in great detail

Romantic love?

from Pink Sherbet Photography

I’m going to start this by saying that I am not the world’s greatest romantic. So if anything I say gives off the impression that I don’t place much stock in this idea of a ‘great love’, or that ‘love conquers all’, it’s because I don’t, at all.

I am in love with my boyfriend. We’re not soppy in public, and we’re not very often soppy in private.I believe that love has a lot to do with familiarity and comfort. I have not yet experienced any kind of emotional fireworks or angels singing. Love came gradually, I was happy when I realised I was in love with him, and I told him, happily. The words felt right coming out of my mouth, so I kept on saying them, at appropriate times and not too often, and I still do. At this moment in time I can’t imagine feeling this way about anyone else in the world, ever. I am aware, though, that I am 20 years old and have a lot of life left to live and feelings left to feel.

I reject the idea that being loved is all about being told you’re beautiful.

Sex and love are not the same thing. Love does not have to be a part of sex. Sex does have to be a part of love.

Then, of course, there’s the non-sexual love, the friends and family love. This love, I feel, is quieter but somehow more extravagant. To live without that kind of love would be a miserable existence. I could live without a boyfriend. I might not want to, right now, but I could. Personally, if I didn’t have the love I experience between myself and my family and my friends, there would be very little point to my life. That love has a lot to do with knowing that someone has got your back. Myself and my older sister, for example, don’t always get on. Sometimes we do, and sometimes we don’t. Even when we don’t, though, I know that she would fight my corner if she had to, and I would for her, and that’s love. Even when we’re screaming at each other and trying to avoid being in the same room at all costs, if someone did her wrong, I would be there, and hopefully vice versa. Love between friends is about surrounding yourself with people who you think are amazing, and who think you are amazing. It’s about fun and laughter. It’s about a support system.