When I think of love, I don’t think of today’s world, today’s definition.

I don’t think of one specific thing or moment. Hook up culture and social media, dating apps and Wizz, that’s not how we were supposed to be wired as a people.

I’m one to believe that love is the purest, most special feeling in the world.

I don’t only mean a kind of love you get with a significant other, I mean the kind of love you can find anywhere.
When you look for it, it’s still all around, in the small moments between friends, or when the sun is shining just right on an animal sunbathing.

Of course, love is when you find the person you know you want to spend your whole life with. When you can tell them anything, and you talk to them throughout all hours of the day.

But love is also when you’re up late into the night with your best friend, making up scenarios about your futures together.

Love is telling your friends that “Our kids can be playing in the back while our husbands BBQ and we catch up,” and that “I think they’ll be best friends.”

Love is when you barge into your little sibling’s room just to annoy them, but really, it’s because you want to spend time together.

That’s the problem with the way love is viewed and treated today. People are shy about it when it’s meant to be loud and all-consuming. People are too scared to stay, so they hook up and leave. They are scared to commit, so they “talk” for six months and then never again.

Love used to be writing songs and love letters for each other. It used to be dancing in the rain and going on as many dates as you could possibly find time for.

I think the relationships that still try their best to work like that are the only ones that will work out in the end.

I don’t say that to manifest anyone’s downfall, but what is love if it is not effort and longing? 99% of the population has seen at least one rom-com. If we all say we want our boyfriends or crushes to act like the male lead, don’t we also need to act like the girl?

So, no, I don’t think love is finding your latest talking stage on Wizz or by adding a random person back on Snapchat.

I don’t think love is a relationship where neither person makes an effort or makes plans.

I think love is trying, it’s knowing someone down to what they do with their hands when they’re lost in thought.

We all wanted a tension like Simon and Daphne. We all wanted someone to “burn” for us, but it goes both ways.
So let’s bring back love the way it was meant to be. Let’s find it all around us and soak it in because it’s so much better than crying over the person you never dated.

I write this while my dog lays his head on me, waiting for me to pet him. He is love. I write this while my best friend texts me about the dream she had last night, and I write this while the sun peaks in through my curtains just enough to create soft light.

There is a dumb quote we’ve all heard on TikTok: “If you look for it, love really is all around.” Well, I think that’s true. It’s about time we start acting like it and pull ourselves out of this never-ending slump of fake love and happiness.

Love,

Kaliegh