it Love, is one simple word that holds so much emotion and meaning. While Webster's dictionary defines love as "a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person; feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection" these words do not hold meaning until one has felt the meaning and power of love. Living in a world as we do today, emotions run wild lumping the significant word of love into another daily event which defaces its importance. Certainly there are those who "love" to partake in a particular past time or hobby, but is this any true indicator of real love? There are many who are so quick to use those four letters to describe either something or someone that they like. We hear that powerful word so frequently tossed to the wind that it tends to lose its meaning. Of course the use of the word love in accordance with friends and family is certainly warranted. However, outside of this extenuating circumstance, no justice is done to love. I, myself am guilty of this same mistake made by so many; rather I was guilty. Until recently, I too had thought that to love someone or something is to develop a certain affinity for them. To the contrary, I have recently discovered the true meaning of love and it has ended up being far different than my previous assumption. Many have the impression that by stating that they "love" someone it creates an unbreakable bond, yet truth be told, it is the memories and moments spent together that molds an undeniable love. Exactly one year and nine months ago, I gained an entirely new perspective on love. That time ago was the first time I had hung out with my current boyfriend. Previous to that day, I had been unsuccessful in ascertaining a definition of true love, but during that day something clicked. Although the phrase "love at first sight" may be clich and over used, I genuinely felt a different connection with this guy that I had never felt before. Albeit, I didn't really know him that well, spending time with him and being around him simply "felt right", again, pardon the clich. Since that day, the feeling which I had once felt has grown immensely. It has matured into what I am now cognizant as love. I now know that to love someone is to dream about them; for them to be in every thought inside your head despite what you might be doing. To love someone is to smile at the sound of their voice or to feel butterflies the second you catch a glimpse of them. It is when you can only think about spending time with that person, when and you finally do and that time is over, you immediately go back to thinking about being with them. Before I was curious about what love was like. Would I know for sure, should I someday experience it? The answer to that is simple: when you encounter love, you will undoubtedly know it. It is distinguishable from any other emotion and it is one of the greatest feelings in the world. I guess I can begin the conclusion of this paper by putting the beginning into perspective. The feelings expressed previously were amazing, untouchable and something I had never imagined would be someday harshly stripped of me. Back in October when I first began to compose this belief essay the connection of love was still tangible and at my finger tips, yet today when I come back to complete it, that connection is no longer valid. While the word love today is widely overused, there are those who speak it with meaning, me being one of them. On that day when the words were first said to me it was surreal, it was a feeling of a high that nothing could have ever changed. I didn't believe that at the age of eighteen someone could mean that. As months went by it was apparently true, love was felt between two individuals. Friday nights spent together, sometimes speechless, meant everything and long walks along the valleys edge became a weekly event. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before, such a deep emotion for someone whom I still looked at as a best friend. Months went by and the feeling of love blossomed into something that cannot be compared to anything else. Through these times the quote "I'd rather have bad times with you, than good times without you" held a vital place in my heart. While the sight of college was in the future the
emotion was enough to hold us strong and believe that things would have a funny way of working themselves out. Little did I know that two months into college, my boyfriend of two years would stumble upon different feelings. Currently he is attending Clemson University, and while I wanted to fight to save "us", I couldn't help but to let him go his separate way hoping that whatever sent us in different directions would someday bring us back together. In a sense I guess that was the best way I could show my love for him in that situation, putting his happiness first. Now that the bad times with him have slowly turned into bad times without him, I look back on the moments of love and yearn to someday feel them again yet at the same time fear the heartache all over.