Ahh--the title. Bears further explanation, yeah? Ok, well, you know I read a lot. Tons. Mountains of books. Many. Mucho. You get the idea. Well, I re-read one over break that I haven't relived for a while-Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees. It was a movie too. SMH--Tragic. But, I digress.
In The Secret Life of Bees, there is a character named August (aptly named when you think about the SAT vocab definition of that word), who tells the protag, a young teenager named Lily, that the Eskimo language has 32 words that mean "love." 32 words. Imagine? So. Here we are.
Another blog about love--but maybe also a chance to REALLY give that word some thought. Never a bad idea, right? So, onward and upward.
The word "love" gets thrown around so much on a day-to-day basis, it's a wonder the letters haven't broken off and gotten lost forever. Or--have they? How often do you say you "love" something as silly as a pair of shoes or an ice cream flavor? So, your challenge for this week, pumpkins, is to dig deep inside yourself and think about what it is that you really love. In order to do that, I think it would be beneficial to start out with a working definition of what love is. So, within your response, embed the answers to the following questions:
How would you define it? What characteristics would be a good representation of it? And then, at long last, ask yourself..."What do I love?" Does putting a classification on things you have previously said you "loved" change your perspective on what the meaning of love should be?
(450 words)
Surprisingly, I do not often say that I “love” things. When I see nice shoes, I do not say that I “love” them. In fact, I would like new shoes because the Jordans I have now are getting worn out and hella crusty. I wish I could say that I love my shoes, but it is okay that I do not have nice, or “lovable”, shoes because I have nice socks, and that is what matters.
ReplyDeleteIn everyday conversation, “love” (in verb form) is a slightly stronger word for “like”. Although, the true meaning of love is, to quote a previous blog post, “the delusion of the mind that results when pheromones of a potential mate reach the ‘lover’, causing the ‘lover’ to experience a strong urge to save the species through a disgusting act involving sweat, whimsical noises, and claustrophobia.” The “true meaning” of love is the one regarding human relationships while the former definition is the one that it seems that this blog post concerns. The characteristics of “love”, first-definition-wise, are pleasure when in the presence of the loved noun and perhaps increased serotonin levels. Maybe the person using the word “love” has a smile on his or her face, although the person may be using the word “love” to take his or her mind off of something else. For example, someone may say that he or she “loves” some girl’s headband, but really that person is trying to take his or her mind off of a recently deceased grandparent or sad dog commercial.
I suppose I love a few things, such as the number 5318008. I like that number a lot. Because I like it a lot, I love it. I also love the rain, perhaps because I enjoy seeing other people run around in a frenzy trying to avoid it for no reason, or because rain is good at washing away tears. I also love to sit down and do nothing. I could do nothing for hours. In fact, I probably spent a third of my time out of school this winter break sitting in a chair, staring at a wall, and pushing off all homework to the Sunday before school. Today. I still have a lot of homework to do and it is past eleven, and this blogpost is not due tomorrow yet I am typing it today anyway because I really do not care about AP Calculus or AP Macroeconomics right now and the homework can wait a few more hours. When I am done typing this, I am probably going to sit at my chair, which is not even that comfortable, and do nothing for another two or so hours. Then, if I feel like it, I will do what is due tomorrow. I do not love busy work and I do not love homework given out for the sake of giving out homework.
I love the color black. However, when I zone off and stare at my walls, I see dark blue. I wanted my bedroom walls to be black, but nooooo, “black is not a good colour for bedroom walls,” they said; “your room will look like the inside of a mausoleum,” they said. Moreover, I love British spellings for words, and the fact that the British drive on the left side of the street instead of the right amazes me. Finally, I love watching movies. Unfortunately, my taste in movies is not the same as many others’ and my father makes fun of me when he catches me watching, black and white movies, silent films, or, wait-for-it, good movies: films created by people with brains, not by “directors” whose primary objective is to puke up as many explosions and sex scenes as humanly possible so that everyday people, who do not know what a good movie is, can throw away their money on garbage. I am looking at you, Michael Bay. The fact that my favourite movie came out in 1968 means that I have class, but my father fails to realize it. I also suppose that I love going on rants about random stuff.
Unfortunately it is difficult to answer the last question because I do not remember saying that I “love” anything in the past. “The meaning of love” should not “be” anything. Language is like an organism in that it adapts to changes throughout its lifetime. “Love” may have adapted and acquired a different meaning than it had in the past, but that does not mean that there is a definition that “love” should have. If one disagrees with the definitions many people use for the word “love”, that person should coin another word with the desired definition. Maybe we need another hip new word for the verb “like”.
DeleteI say I love everything. I caught myself a couple times today just throwing the word around. But, I often say I love you to people because I appreciate them in my life or I felt they just needed some lovin’. But do I really love them or those things? Hmm...probably not. I honestly cannot define love or tell you what love looks like because I don’t think the concept of love is realistic. I guess that would mean I have a definition of love but I have something in mind that I think is impossible to reach. Does that make sense? Like I think love should be a forever thing, a constant appreciation, happiness, and complete acceptance. But, I feel like love sometimes just means you got comfortable and used to something and you are content. I just don’t think love is all it’s hyped up to be. It’s not realistic
ReplyDeleteI think things that you really love tend to be things that you think you will forever. I guess like your husband or family or something. But, I feel like love turns into comfort. Safe. Boring. Your love, after a while, is no longer a new car. You still use it and care about it everyday, but it just loses its edge, fun, excitement. Ya know?
Love just isn’t real. This makes me sound like a heartless animal, but I really do love and care about things. But, I don’t think I really truly love these things. Maybe because I think a lot people are temporary and you will rarely find people from start to finish because life is life and people suck and die and disappoint. Wow, I sound like a great person.
But there are two things I guess I could say I love. Myself, on most days, I think I’m a pretty rockin person. I think I’m hilarious. I guess a lot of people call my corny or dumb, but I definitely crack myself up all of the time. I’m bad as hell, smart, independent, caring...ok let me stop. I love myself. I appreciate myself. I see my flaws, and accept some. I get insecure. People scare me sometimes. I have time, I’ll get there. I’ll really love myself forever.
The second is my dog, Toby. I will love him forever. Mostly because we can’t fight, so he can’t say anything dumb to me. But even that, I still love him when he eats my clothes or my food or my fingers. I love him.
I don’t really think you can classify or put characteristics on things you love. I think you have to open enough to go through life and experience it wholeheartedly. Be open to everything, see what you hate and dislike and figure out things you love. Maybe love is indescribable. Maybe I just don’t know enough. But I don’t think love is something to define. One because I don’t think the idea of love is that realistic. And, two, because I think it could be different. It’s an idea, a feeling.
I ALWAYS contradict myself in every blog. I hate it. Oh, Buddha! One day. I also didn’t curse once in this blog, so YAY! Go new me.
I know about the word “hate.” I know that it’s a strong word. We all do. In fact, it’s so strong that, to me, it represents anger and grief. But we often use “hate” for “dislike.” We don’t hate things; we dislike them. I try not to use “hate” when I talk about material matter. However, I can’t help it if I say the word “hate” when it applies to humans and intangible objects.
ReplyDeleteThe same goes with “love.”
Love is an equally strong word, but, like “hate,” it should only be used when attributed towards a person or incorporeal substances. (And I know that humans are technically tangible, but in my mind, I disagree. A person’s body is concrete but a person consists of their mind and their soul, not the form of matter they in.) Although I toss around the word “love” when I talk about my favorite movies, foods, etc., I don’t really mean it sincerely. I take love seriously. So serious, in fact, that it only takes one hand to count the number of people who I truly love. I like many of the people I know. I love very few of them.
But what is love? Especially unconditional love? Towards a person, it is a whole-hearted acceptance for someone layered over a foundation of trust and respect. Accepting who they are even if you don’t know everything about them. Trusting that they will accept your flaws and your quirks. Respecting that they have their own lives, in which that you are not a part of entirely, and leaving them with their own space. Acceptance, trust, and respect are just the beginning characteristics of a full journey of love, but without those core ideas, there isn’t any stable ground to build a relationship on.
My friends. They are whom I love. So much that I always talk about them. And I don’t mean the friends I barely say “hi” to. I mean the ones where I can go a full summer without talking to, yet when talk again we pick up right where we left off. We don’t talk 24/7 because we accept the fact that we have our own lives and responsibilities. Plus, I don’t even share my deep problems or my darkest secrets with them and it’s not because I don’t love them, it’s just the type of person I am. Some know more and some know less, it just depends on how I feel. And they respect that. And I trust that if there ever comes a day where I pour my soul into them they will be right there next to me listening to every word I have to say.
Even though I love a tiny amount of people, I do love a larger amount of untouchable aspects that life has to offer. I love memories. Happy or sad, I cherish them all because it makes me realize how much I have grown as a person. I love reading. I like books, but reading lets me live a life in my head as a character in a life I would never be able to live. It lets me connect with the words on a page and make a movie out of my own imagination. I love the feeling of the sun’s rays on my skin on a cloudless spring day as the gentle wind passes by. Just being able to feel the warmth on my arms makes me grateful to live life, no matter how hard it can get. It reminds me that just like how a cold winter leads to a sunny summer, life has its good and its bad, and, in the end, those moments always pass leading into other.
My answer to the last question would be yes and no. I’m sorry for the wishy-washy answer but it’s what I think. It does change my perspective about love because most of the time, you think you love things when you really don’t. You can be passionate it but not love it. However, it also doesn’t change my perspective in the way that I believe that there is some degree of love in everything you like, even if it’s the tiniest amount. So, even if I only think that I love reading and the feeling of the sun on my skin, there is still love in it. And that’s all that matters.
Love cannot be defined, it can only be interpreted by each person in their unique way. For me, love is a feeling or emotion, and you just simply know when you truly love somebody. In my head, there is two types of love; one for your family and one for the partner you have been seeking your entire life to call soulmate. These two loves are related in ways but are completely different. Family love is just because of blood lineage. Of course there’s exceptions because there is always a couple of family members— by that I mean 15 out of the 300 in your family— you have a special bond with, but than some, for example your cousin, that you don’t see ever except maybe once every two years, you’re kind of forced to love him/her because they are your family. And of course, we all do it, including me. But than there is the love that you get to decide who gets it. The decision of who gets to see you in your true colours, who gets to meet the goofy side of you, and who gets to realize that you will sacrafice anything for them. Besides your love for your parents and your siblings, the decision of who you get to love, to me, is the best.
ReplyDeleteLove drives you insane, the good way and the bad. There will be bumps (if not you are not normal). Love does not come easy, but when you realize that you have gone through the worst of it, thats when you’ll realize the ‘true love’ you feel for that other person. It’s going through hell and back with that other person and being the only survivors. It’s going against all odds and winning. But you must make sure you choose wisely, because your love is limited. You cannot go through 10, 11, 12 people telling them you love them. You might love 2, maybe 3 at max, in your whole life time. If you love more, I’m sorry to tell you, you actually don’t. You can like as many people as you want, but not love. The word ‘love’ is made strong for a reason. They didn’t make it like this on accident.
I actually do feel as I love somebody (besides my amazing, beautiful mother, of course). I might be out of my mind as I am writing this, but I feel I do. In fact, I know I do. Not worrying about the fights, she’s brought me pure happiness. But we fight because we’re both stubborn little brats. I bitch when it’s not my way and she does the same when it’s not her’s. At first, I did it because I thought I was smarter than her. But now I’m beggining to realize I’m not. Women are smarter, women are superior…
She is more intelligent, been through more, and has over come everything I have overcome squared. People might say I’m ‘whipped,’ in which I always agree to, but I know in my head I am not. I do the things I do to make her happy, does that mean I’m ‘whipped?’ If it does I’m guilty of charge. I do everything for her because she’s been through so much. She inspires me. Believe it, or not, I actually look up to her. She doesn’t know it, but I really do. I listen to her because no matter how much AP courses I take, she always seems to be write. Just like all the women in life, they always seem to be right. Women might have their flaws, but they are superior to men. Men are driven by woman. If those two sentences haven’t got you yet maybe this will.. women bring all humans into this life. They carry you for 9 months, do most of the taking-care-of when you are still too young to take care of yourself. They simply are the dominant sex.
This girl I speak of, her name is Sierra. Sierra Jimenez to be exact. Born September 6, 1998, in Vineland, NJ. I thank god everyday for her because I honestly wouldn’t know where I would be at without her. She means a lot to me.
I love her.
The simplest way I can think of to describe love is anything that makes you happy. There’s a lot of things in the world to be sad about so finding something that makes you happy is amazing. Before I described love as comfort and what’s wrong with being comfortable. Yeah people tell you that being comfortable is boring and it’s not exciting but in this crazy and messed up world we live in, it’s nice to come home to something that gives you comfort and stability. When you find something you love it means you’re happy and why can’t you be happy?
ReplyDeleteWhen I talk about love I’m not just talking about loving another person. You could love food, sports, anything. It might seem lame but I love drawing. I’ve talked about this before and how I stopped drawing and caring but recently I rediscovered my love for it. Over the break I decided to paint a mural on my boyfriend’s wall. I was just painting and listening to music and I loved every minute of it. I love the feeling of holding a brush and the smooth feeling of applying paint on a blank canvas. I love being able to create an image in my head and draw it out in pen and pencil. I love the feeling of clay in my hands and forming different shapes and textures. But overall I love how happy I feel when I’m doing it. Drawing makes me happy so it’s something I love.
Another thing I love is the summer. I hate the cold. I hate the feeling of waking up cold even though I wore a sweater and sweatpants to bed. I hate how during the winter everything just hits me and I feel upset every day. So when summer comes along I love opening my windows no matter how hot it is and let my room smell like summer. During the summer there’s no school so I get to sleep in but most importantly I have time to do things like hanging out with my friends or making trips to places without stressing about work. I’m just a lot happier during the summer so I love it.
When it comes to loving someone it’s pretty much the same. But when it comes to loving someone the word becomes more serious. If someone makes you happy, you most likely love them. When I said that love is about being comfortable around the person I mean that you don’t have to pretend to be someone you’re not around them. Being comfortable around someone means that you’ve been able to break down your walls and allow them to see your weaknesses. And love is when you’re together for a long time and yet they still seem to find ways to make you happy. I mean why would you be with someone who makes you angry or upset. Why would you waste your time and effort into someone who doesn’t make you happy? And this might sound cheesy but if you loved yourself why would you intentionally make yourself unhappy.
I don't use the word love on a day to day basis unless I'm singing along to Justin Biebers' "Love Yourself." I probably use the word a few times a week because I think that over the years, the word lost most of its meaning. People throw the word around like dollar bills in a strip club, which is why it is basically meaningless in most cases. I define love as strongly caring for something that makes you happy and lasts for more than two weeks. I choose two weeks in my definition because people say they love something and then forget about it the next day. For example one minute I love a song, then I overplay it and start to get sick of it. The use of love in this case doesn't fit my definition.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the beginning of loving something is more of an obsession. Wanting to be with that item 24/7 is probably the first step. For example when I got my Yorkie, I wanted to spend every chance that I got with it. That was the first step to loving my dog. After the obsessed phase treating Bobby as family was the next step. Treating her as family shows that I'm comfortable around her and that I accept her.
One thing that I love very much is my bow tie collection. Besides the coolness of bow ties, I love them because my sister supplied a good portion of my collection from holidays and birthdays. Looking at my bow tie collection makes me happy because it also shows that I have come far from the eighth grader on his way to dinner dance with a tie tied by his dad.
Another thing that I love is my ukulele. My ukulele makes me happy whenever I play a song. I feel accomplished whenever I play it because I finally learned to play an instrument (after a few failed attempts). Instead of sitting here thinking about something to write about, I played my ukulele, which inspired me. Both my ukulele and bow tie collection fit my definition of love because they do make me happy and the happiness has lasted for more than two weeks.
Thinking about things that I said I loved does change my perspective of love. I do think that love should last a substantial amount of time, so two weeks is probably a little short. Most of the time people use the word love when they really like something. Now I think that love comes with time. With instruments frustration sets in before love which is probably why I failed to learn several. Now I think that spending time with/ learning to use anything that you like has the potential to love it.
I say the word “love” at least 38947 times a day. “I love ice cream”, “I love pizza”, I love food”. I usually just talk about loving food, I love other things but I never really say it as much. Love is when you can’t live without something/someone without missing them or it, but with love, you don't get over it. You can think you love your boyfriend until he breaks up with you and then for a couple months after you will think you still “love” him but soon you realize that he's nothing to you and you don't love him. If that's the case then you probably never loved him in the first place. Love is supposed to be forever, it usually isn't, but it should be. When you love something or someone, you never get sick of it, ever. I could never get sick of pizza. Even if I ate it everyday, I would never have to eat anything else.
ReplyDeleteI don't only just love pizza though. There are actually couple people that I love and if I was ever to lose them I would never be the same. The three people I love are, my mom, my dad, and my dog. There's also a couple friends I love but those three people are the most important. I love my mom and she loves me. Even though we fight just about every minute of everyday, I would be lost without her yelling at me in italian every five seconds. I will never stop loving my mom and I will never get sick of her no matter how many times we throw shoes at each other. My favorite guy in the world is my dad. Casper, aka the ninja, architect, doctor, masseur, and just about everything else. I appreciate everything he has ever done for me and I will always love my dad no matter what. Not to forget the last person, my dog, Mia who I consider a person. She is one of the only people who can brighten my day just by doing nothing she doesn't even realize how much I love her but I really do. Without my baby mia I wouldn’t know what to do on sunday nights at 6pm when I usually am chasing her around the house. I love anyone who cares about me and has helped me through a rough patch in my life. There are many other people who I love but it's too much to name but if I love you, you’ll know it.
Although, my love for pizza and people are completely two different things. I love pizza but the people I love will always come before it. I don't go up to pizza and say “Wow I love you” but if I go up to you and say “I love you”, not “Love you”, then you probably mean a lot to me and you are a great person. I used to tell the wrong people I loved them and now they mean nothing to me. I will probably constantly change my definition of love until the day I die but this is how I’m feeling right now but eventually I’ll probably get screwed over by someone and these views will completely change. Except for pizza. Pizza will be right by my side till 3005.
There is no straightforward definition of love. Each time I attempt to define love I concoct a different definition. Love is a strong desire and affection for something or someone. It is passionate and almost undescribable. Love is a genuine, complicated and overwhelming feeling. Love requires compromise, loyalty and acceptance. Love is all about putting someone else before yourself. Their problems become your problems and their happiness becomes your happiness. Love is not just romantic though, it comes in all different forms. It’s no wonder why the Eskimos have 32 different words for love. Maybe if english had 32 words the word “love” wouldn’t be so frivolously thrown into sentences, diluting its true meaning. Currently, the love in my life comes from my family, my friends and my animals. I love being home on the river and anywhere else that holds sentimental value. I love spending time with the ones I love. I love playing the piano for people, helping people and making new memories with people. Love is so fulfilling. With all of this considered, I definitely know when I misuse the word. A lot of times in casual conversation I will throw around the word love. While saying things like “I love those shoes!” is complementing and nice, it also dilutes the real meaning of the word. If people only said “love” when they truly meant it, the word would hold much more value. Most of the time people either use “like” or “love,” which makes it almost impossible to avoid the word love. So when it comes to the word “love” I choose to use it whenever I feel like. The only time I carefully use the word is when I am saying it to someone else. I will rarely tell anyone “I love you” if I don’t mean it.The abstract word causes confusion and can be deceiving or misleading. Especially when you tell someone you love them and they take it to another level. For this reason, I think there should be a whole selection of specific words for love. The Eskimos are smart for this reason. They probably have very exact and concrete words for love including the type of love and to what extent. Maybe if English had 32 words for love people would not take “love” the wrong way. Maybe I’ll just become an Eskimo in order to save myself from the danger and abstractness of the word.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIn a previous blog post I talked about my mother throwing herself into the murky frozen water to save my brother. I said that love is throwing yourself into the unknown. Love is a tricky thing and it can be molded and shaped to a situation, the word love has changed, Im sure my mother didn't talk about loving a pair of shoes with her friends. But I know that I do, in fact I just said it today, I said it about my prom shoes and my homecoming shoes…I like shoes, but I wouldn't jump to a possible death to pull them off the floor of a body of water. So maybe I should stop saying I love shoes. I use the word love all the time, some things I truly do love while other things I just like a lot. My horse, is something I love with every bit of my heart. I would sell my soul for that horse. Maybe its stupid to love something that cant even speak to you but I do. Thats the thing, you don't know truly what people love because the word is used so often and it either means they will die for the shoes or they just really like them. So when people tell you they love you how do you know? I don't think you really ever do unless they're throwing themselves into the frozen water for you. I don't love objects, I love people and I love that horse I have thats more dragon than horse, and I love experiences. I could count the people I truly love on my fingers and maybe a few toes. I know what I love. I love laying on my back watching the sky hold the stars. I love standing in a pouring down, summer rain. I love the way horse shoes sound clicking on the pavement. I love the sound of laughter and the way peoples eyes light up when they smile. I love fast cars. I love midnight because anything can happen and I love the sun because it makes me think of summer. I love summer because I love the sun and for me the two go hand in hand. I love people who see life as an adventure not a chore. I love learning real things. I love meeting new people and eating new food. I love good books, but its not the actual books that I love its the words tattooed on their pages. Maybe thats using the word love too much but I would throw myself into the abyss if all those things left this life. I think you love something when its capable of setting your soul on fire, when it can make you absolute crazy. Thats what life is all about, a string of moments that have your eyes wide open, your lungs gasping for breath and, your heart beating out of your chest. Life is about the love.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read this blog post, I was hit so hard by the questions that I had to go to sleep. Now that I’ve slept on it, I still don’t know what love is. Based on what I’ve seen, love is when you like something or someone so much that you can’t stop expressing your everlasting feeling of joy over it, or it’s at least hard for you to contain your happiness about it. I say I love things and people like it’s nobody’s business. Do I mean it? Yeah, probably. Unless I’m being fake, (which is an art not a crime). Like when Justin Bieber plays on the radio, I definitely express my love at the top of my lungs. When my friends are doing something nice for me, I’ll give them a smile and a hug and tell them I love them. But as I search my soul with a flashlight and an Eskimo coat on, my desolate and downtrodden inner self tells me it loves nothing and no one.
ReplyDeleteI love my family and all of my friends (yo ho we’re the pirates), but I think that saying, “I love you” is a learned response. It’s so overused and broken that I feel like it has no meaning. I don’t love a lot of people out there, I barely like people. I don’t abuse the word ‘love’ like some of these other crazy kids. I’ve seen too many people get hurt by falling in love when the relationship was a one-way street, and they find out that people are shit after their heart is broken. I very infrequently say “I love you” back to people who say it to me. Not because I won’t mean it when I say it, but because I’m afraid they’ll take my affection and throw it back in my face. I do love things more than people, however. Because things don’t go away and things aren’t mean to you and things don’t say “I love you” when they don’t mean it.
Now, I have two very best friends. Everyone has at least one, and if you don’t that’s fine, but you’ll realize that you’re going to have it be your own best friend sooner or later. Regardless, my best friends are Harry and Vanessa. They’re my best friends because even though we’re from the same devil town, they seem to be angels somehow. We go to different schools, Vanessa is a pirate and Harry is a Hermit, but we somehow don’t allow that to stop us from being so close. I love them both; I have a biological brother and sister, but Harry and Vanessa feel like something stronger. I love all my friends, but I love Vamessa and Harold a little more.
When I say I love things, I mean things that I can’t touch. Music is something I love. I love how people can get creative and put rhythm to it and make other people feel good. I also love the way people understand things and trying figure out ways to understand their point of view. The way people see things is very important to me, because being able to understand things in a different way is valuable when you go out into the world and you’re not surrounded by dumb-ass, small minded high schoolers anymore.
Oh, I love the Lord, too. Jesus saves, my friends. Don’t you forget it either.
ReplyDeleteWhenever you look up the definition for love it always says you feel it towards a person and never really explains feeling it towards inanimate objects, so why can people say they love shoes, clothes and etc. Which is why I think Love to me means that you have strong affection towards someone and will do anything and everything to make that one person happy. with this in mind I honestly don’t think I would go out of my way to make a pair of shoes happy, so I think people misuse the word love sometimes. Love is meant to be a strong word that’s only used when you really feel a strong passion towards a certain person. But I think now people say it so often that the word “love” lost some of its meaning.
Some good characteristics of love are acceptability. When you fall in love with someone usually all their flaws disappear and you learn to accept that person as who they are because of the fact that you care so much about them. Love doesn’t really judge, so if you're in love you shouldn’t be wanting to change that person in any way, shape, or form. Also, true love can last even longer than the relationship does. If a couple ends up breaking up for whatever reason can still love the person you just might not be “in love” with them anymore. Another good characteristic for love is that it’s unconditional. And this means that you don't have any expectations set on your love one. You would love them whether they were broke, rich, skinny,or big all because of the deep affection you have for them.
I can honestly say I don’t think I'm in love with anybody right now and that’s fine with me. But I know that I love my family and friends. See there's a difference between being in love with someone and just loving someone. I think you can love anybody, but being able to fall in love is the thing that you need the right person for. I know that I would do anything to make my family happy and I would go out of my way to do things for them. Before writing and really thinking about this blog and what the word love really means, I can admit that I carelessly threw the word I love around. The most common way I would use the word love wrong is expressing my love for food. I sometimes do think that I'm actually in love with food but I know that's not possible. Food just somehow makes me happy no matter what. I now figured out that love is a strong word that is used to express your affection for someone but it could also be more subtle and have a less stronger meaning.
The word “love” is usually used in everybody’s vocabulary at least once a day. Now that I am thinking about it, I can remember myself saying, “Oh I love this song, turn it up.” or “I love your shoes, where did you get them from?” So… is it okay to throw the “L” word around nonchalantly like no big deal? Or are we supposed to save it for more meaningful moments? For example, when two people are in a relationship one might find it difficult to say those three words (I love you) that usually put relationships at risk. Therefore, is it ‘OK’ to simply say, “I love this song” rather than telling someone dear to you, “I love you.”?
ReplyDeleteLove can be defined as something someone cares about the most or how deep a feeling someone gets when being around another person. Characteristics of loving something or someone would be faithful, forgiving, respectful, thoughtful, and selfless. All of the characteristics above is not hard to do if you truly love who or what you love. For example, if you love a person, you would do anything in your power to protect them, love them or be around them. Being faithful, selfless, and thoughtful is not a chore, it should just come naturally if you really care about that person.
What I love the most in this world is my family. My mom, dad, brother, and sister mean the world to me and I do not know what I would do without them. My siblings are the ones who I hang out with at home and are the ones who I crack jokes with. Yes, my brother and sister can get on my last nerve and annoy me to no end, but I would rather have them than be an only child or have any other siblings. My parents are also the most important people in my life. My parents are the ones who feed me, give me shelter, and clothe me. Other than that, they also support me, sacrifice a lot for me, and give me everything I need. A lot of kids my age can not say that, that is why I am so grateful every single day that I was blessed with the parents and family that I have.
As I said above, the word “love” is very powerful and meaningful. Therefore, saying, “I love your shoes” does not mean as much as saying “I love you” for the first time. That is why I think people should rethink about what they say they love; also because some people do not know how powerful the word “love” actually is.
I love pizza and my cat and my dog and my family and friends but to say I love all of those things equally would be a lie. Of course pizza is great and all but I don't love it as much as I love my family. So to define love is pretty hard because love is different for all people, and their amount of love for everything varies. My definition of love is pretty simple. Love is being completely and utterly infatuated with someone or something. No matter what that may be-- again it'll be different for everyone-- if you love that person, place, animal, or thing, if you are infatuated with it, then you love it. There's a difference between loving pizza and loving your mom, just think about it. Now you may say you love pizza, but compare it to the way and how much you love your mother and it gets you thinking, "what does love really mean?" Some characteristics to represent love is the way people care about you. They way people drop what they have to do for your well being or just to keep a smile on your face. They way someone might surprise you with your favorite flowers or candy, or just a little gesture that just says, “I love you.”
ReplyDeleteTo be completely honest, I love my family. I have always been a family oriented girl and I've been taught since I was a little girl that family is everything. Before I was old enough to have real friend outside of school, like sleepovers and play-dates, all I ever had was my family. Whether it be just my parents, just my grandparents, or my entire family all in one setting, I've always had them in my life. My family is the most important thing in my life. To think I could love someone or something more than my family who have been there since the day I was born boggles my mind. Of course I say a million times a week that I love my friends and my boyfriend, but in reality and in the real world, those people come and go throughout your life because that’s just what happens. But my family-- they’re not going anywhere. They have helped me become the person I am today and they work with me every day to help become the woman I wish to be in the future. No matter where I am, what time of day it is, or what terms we might be on, my family would never hesitate to come to my rescue whenever I needed them. They’ve known me all me life, and as a result of that they know me inside and out. That’s love-- when you feel comfortable with the people you are completely infatuated with, and get a mutual feeling in return.
Putting a classification on things I have previously said I loved doesn’t change my perspective on what the word “love” means at all. We can’t be taught specifically what love is. There’s a definition, yeah, but there’s a couple different versions of that definition and even if we got taught the definition of love and what it “means,” it’s still up for interpretation. If you taught a class full of kids since they’re young what the definition of love is and how to love, and then ask them to repeat it, they’ll all have different answers because love is a feeling and we all have different feelings.
Love. To some people the word means nothing to them. It could be because they’ve never experienced love before, or they did love something or someone and that person corrupted the word and concept for them, or they just don’t understand it. For many others the word love is seen and kept to a high standard. Love to me: is a feeling that someone feels towards another person, or thing. And to be honest I’m not sure how else I can put it into words. I would say some characteristics for love are: happiness, smiles, tears, angers, compromises, honesty, support, understanding one another/ each other, a burning desire in your body for the thing you love. That’s the best that I can sum it up, and what I think defines the word love.
ReplyDeleteNow that I think about it, I use the word love a lot. Majority of the time when I’m using the word love, it’s to describe something that I really really really like. Like I say I love ice cream, or if someone says a really funny joke I say, “ I love (person’s name)” while cracking up. But truth is, I don’t really love them, I just like them as a person, and I really like the joke they told. There is a select few of things that I really do love. The first thing I know I love is my family. Not only my intermediate family, but the family like second and so on cousins, my aunts and uncles, grandparents, all from both sides of the family. I love my family with a great deal, but when I think of who I truly love from my family, my brother comes to mind. How cheesy. My brother and I share a really unique relationship. I always go to his games and support him with whatever he does, and if I miss one game then he’s mad at me for just a good hour. We do this weird thing where we would try to think about what we would do if we lost one another, one day I asked him in the car while driving with my mom. When I asked him what he would do if I died (I know really strange to ask), and he replied, “Then I would go too, I don’t know what I would do.” To me I just think that exemplifies what love means.
I know that I love all animals. And I 100% know that I love my dogs Miloh and Cole. It’s crazy how little walking fur balls can bring so much joy into your life.
I know that I love my boyfriend, I know how cliche. Many people say “Oh you’re too young to know
what love is”, “This is just kiddy stuff”. To those people I literally just look at them and block them out. Because how can someone tell me what I love? Everyone has a different definition for love, how does theirs match mine? I don’t know about a lot of things in my life, but I do know that I love Musah. This is turning super sappy, sorry.)
And lastly, I do have friends. I wouldn’t say I have a lot of friends because to be honest, I don’t really like a lot of people. I have a lot of acquaintances. I have maybe 2 friends that I love. I won’t say who, but I do love them a good amount. And to the others, I like you very much. :)
Before I thought I loved certain people or things. But now that this blog post has come into my fingers and brain, I realized how silly I was. I just really liked them and for that reason, I thought I loved them. Now that I’m older and more wiser to life, I think when people go to say they something or someone, they truly need to think about it. Because probably 8/10 times they probably just really really like it.
I love you too Angie Phoo
DeleteTo me love is a strong feeling you get in your gut. Love can make you beyond happy or extremely sad. Sometimes love is unexplainable, one time I was just sitting on my couch with Juwan and I was looking at him and Im like damn he really loves me, somebody loves me. That guy would do anything for me and all he wants is for me to be happy. I tried explaining to him the feelings I have but I just cant find the words. Its only been 8 months of us...but he sure has made a huge impact on my life and my views. You just know when you love something or somebody. You can feel it. But usually when someone says they love a pair of shoes.. They just think that the shoes are really really cute, they dont love the shoes as if it were a family member. What do I really love? Well you see I love my immediate family and Kennedy and Juwan. Thats it. My mom, dad, little brother and sister, Kennedy and Juwan are the people I never want to lose. But then theres stuff I "love" but not like love love. I love the rain, not just a drizzle but a downpour of rain. It makes me feel fuzzy inside and I just want to cuddle in bed and watch it and hear it, I love the noise of rain. I love being alone, but then I also love company. I love the feeling of your stomach dropping when you ride roller coasters. I love the beach, the sound of the ocean and the seagulls and the warm weather. I love love love love forreal love disney world. I stayed in this cabin at disney world in walking distance from a mini beach with the really soft powdery white sand with hammocks and tiki torches and I would walk down at night in some t shirt and pajama shorts and some slippers and just sit in the hammock next to the tiki torch and just watch the crystal blue water and the sunset, and you could see the whole disney park across the water. That is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen and if I could I would do that every night I felt so much happiness. I really love that. I love the part in disney world where each section is a different country.. Like in germany there would be german restaurants and german things and they would play german music and it was the same for like Italy or Mexico or India like for some reason I just really really love that. This stuff makes me so content with life. Love was honestly a word made up to put a name on a feeling... But im sure theres a word we could rather use than love and itll mean alot more. Love generally makes you happy, the feeling of being loves is nice and the feeling of loving is nice too. But it can also bring you to tears. I could get in a fight with my mom and be torn up about it for days.. Only because I love her. If I were to get in a fight with some friend or some random I wouldn't even be affected. You can care so much about a person or a thing its really insane.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way em as you said in the begining it all felt so familiar i love you so happy for you
DeleteWe all know there is no proper definition of love. If you ask numbers of people what love is you will come across many different answers. To me, love is an affection, it is a powerful emotion no one can control. When I say that I mean people will start loving things before they even realize they do. When you can never stop thinking about that someone or something, always tend to talk about it, and never was to lose or let it go, you love it. People argue that once you love something you always will no mater what the case may be. In my opinion, I don’t believe love is an unconditional emotion. In other words, the things you love now it is possible that you will not love them later. Love comes with conditions, meaning there are reasons why you love the people and things you do now. If those traits and characteristics vanish from what you love, you will begin to not have much love for it.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I love a lot of things. The three mainly being my family, friends, and dogs. The reason I only mentioned these three is because they are what stay on my mind the most. I would do anything necessary for them and would never want to lose them. I can admit, I do overuse the word just a little though. Sometimes I might say I love people just because they did me a favor or done something that benefited me in a way. That may seem harsh but I noticed a lot of people do it. There have been people that have told me they loved me when we barely knew each other. Most of the time it just comes out without realizing you said it. As I mentioned before love is extremely powerful and when you lose someone or something you love it is going to hurt without a doubt. That is why love should not be thrown around as it is being, it should take deep thoughts and consideration before admitting to something you love. If society begins to do this love would most likely mean way more to someone when you say it to them.
Putting a classification on the things I previously said I love does not change my perspective on what the meaning of love should be. To the things I can actually admit I have love for I always think about them, always find ways to bring them up in conversations, and I can’t imagine my life without them. Besides the fact I may throw the “ I love you” phrase around frequently there is still many things I really do love and they all fit in with my definition.
The four letter word ,“love”, creates tension between people with their definition of it all around the world. Tons of people use this word without knowing what is really is. Some probably have the wrong idea of love. They seem to value the word without valuing the meaning of it. As for myself, I’m not entirely sure what it really is. I’ve seen “love” between people/ things that surround me, having the idea of what it may be. Infact I’ve read a definition of it in the bible. From seeing these, I assume that’s what love is, but I still question the word. I see different meanings of “love” in the world: romantic love, friendship love, family love, the love for things and other people, etc. I don’t feel the same for my friends as I do for my mom. I think love has different boundaries between people/ things. So, believe there is more than one definition of it. Simply,my definition of “love” is the deep affection for anything that you feel it for and it's also the unconditional happiness it brings you that lasts forever.
ReplyDeleteTowards others, the characteristics, I believe, that are a good representation of love are kindness, care, respect, happiness, acceptance and trust. I truly love my family(including my dog), friends and God. Towards things, the characteristics that are a good representation of love are ambition, passion, pride, and admiration. I truly love all the different forms of art, sports, food(:P) and life. These characteristics helped me narrow down to these things. They shaped me into who I am today and I’m grateful.
Love is nothing to rush though. It may take time to realize. There’s a lot that I love, as you can see listed above, but as time goes by there is a possibility where they may change because I have learned a little more about loving someone/thing. Because I’m still very young and have not fully understood the word yet, I have a big future ahead of me and who knows where it leads me. All I know is that I need to take it one step at a time.
Love is when you feel like something or someone is irreplaceable in your life. I really do say I love everything but I don’t know if I mean it. Sometimes, I love the presence of a person or food or clothes but I can live without them. I don’t need those things to keep going in life and they don’t always make me happy, just at that moment they do. I love the people in my life, who actually make an impact, with my whole heart and I most definitely know that. I COULD NOT live without my friends and family, like most people, so I think to love them is the most realistic thing we can love. But I also loveeeee things like the beach, crying tears of laughter, sports, my dog, and sleeping. Don’t forget I also LOVE Mia and football ;). Then when I think about it in terms of loving a significant other I don’t know what to expect. I’ve always believed it was true and always saw my friends so happy and endless cute instagram pictures of people who “loved” each other. One day, they would all be deleted and both instagrams were spotless of the two who claimed they were in love. Kinda sad how I’m relating this to social media but I think that's half of our problem. Love is thrown around like an expectation. We base being in love off how many months people are in a high school relationship and not off of what they actually feel. The more we grow we do become more mature but the more I’m around the thought of it the more I become scared to feel it. I always imagined love being a stepping stone in relationship that builds trusts and happiness. I always wanted someone to tell me they loved me and just me with their whole heart. I always dreamed of someone saying “I love you” like the movies but that's just crazy to think about. Overall, I imagined it to be so positive. But then, being told I love you can tear you down. It can create doubts and horrible thoughts. Because do we really mean it when we say I love you since we say it to so many things? I regret using the phrase to people who didn’t deserve to hear it. I blame myself for believing that saying I love you means that someone actually means it, because over half the time, people make mistakes and they claim “they love you” and that is their way out of things. If you love someone, you do not decorate their eyes with tears, ears with lies, and heart with a wound. I stick by the word love and think it's somewhere out there, but when you love someone you love them forever and always feel some type of way about them. But other than that I love food too. I love my bffs and I love coming to school to see everyone's smiling faces :) and that will never change.
ReplyDeleteYes, the word “love” is used and tossed around too much. Kids these days don’t know what the word truly means. The heck, no one really does. Love is very valuable to me, yet I love many things. It’s not overused, I just have a lot of room in my heart. “Love” is a four letter word that people throw around. Call me traditional, but when I say “ily” to someone, I mean it. I love people and I love precious moments that money can’t buy.
ReplyDeleteLet’s skip the people, that's pretty self explanatory that I love my family and best friends very much. They know who they are. I love all the moments money can’t buy. One of my favorites is when I’m at the beach, I close my eyes and dig my toes in the sand while listening to the waves crash and surprisingly I also enjoy listening to the annoying seagulls squawk. The beach is the perfect place to let all your stress go and have fun with all your friends. I kind of miss the beach a lot right now, thinking of the nice warm sun while I sit here in the cold writing this in my computer… anyways moving on. Another thing I love is when I’m surrounded by my best friends and my stomach hurts so much from laughing too much. Or when I laugh and no sound comes out because I can’t breathe. Sometimes I wish I could just pause that moment and just stay happy forever. But unfortunately, life keeps playing, even feels like it’s on fast forward… It’s 2016 for heaven’s sake, we graduate in a year! Ugh that's crazy. Speaking of, I love how we made it this far, as a family. Struggling hella, along the way with our late nights cramming with the crazy workload and stress. As long as we’re doing it together than I feel perfectly comfortable doing what I do. I am a very simple person. I love the little things as well. Cheap breakfast dates, sleepovers, great food, and movie marathons.
Love is something that makes you happy. If you aren’t happy with them or it then you aren’t in love. That's my definition. You don’t realize you love something or someone until it’s gone.
I don’t really know what kind of characteristics can represent affection. I guess the best thing I can think of is when you’re going an extra mile for another in order to keep them happy.
Welp, Ms. Bunje you definitely got me on this one. You should know that I opened this blog at least seven times since you posted it on Sunday afternoon.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, I am not too big on love. Well, actually, I think I would be a fan of it once I experience it. Sure my family loves me, and so do all of my friends, and teachers, but I am referring to a boy. I am very lonely, and it actually sucks to see all of my friends with their “mans”, and then there is just me hugging my textbook(s). (Yea I know, I’m such a loser). Anyways, I’ve never been loved by a boy, but I would love to experience it. However, until then, I will continue to convince myself that I don’t need a “mans”, or that I have more important things to worry about.
If you remember reading my previous blog posts, you would know that my best/deepest thoughts come out when I’m in the shower. Hot, long, and steamy showers are the best way to get my mind going. So while I was in the shower I began to think about the meaning of love. Personally, I believe love has multiple levels. So, when I say “OMG I LOVE those shoes” it is not the same as when I say “I LOVE you Mom, Dad, CJ, etc.”
I was taught that love is whatever makes you happy. I still live by this, which is probably why I love so much. Food makes me happy, clothes make me happy, my family makes me happy, my friends make me happy, summer makes me happy, learning about science makes me happy, advocating for my own people makes happy, and so on. My point is that there are many things in this world that make me happy. However, I do not love each of them equally. I love my friends and family way more than I love shoes and food. Well sometimes I love food a little more, because it doesn’t yell at me 24/7 and give me a nasty ass attitude like some people. *cough* *cough* Dr. Jeneé Hamler *cough* Taylor Van *cough* @ many others. Just kidding! Please don’t tell Jenee, she’ll kill me!
WHAT DO I LOVE?...Hmmm
DeleteI low key love myself. I just never admit it because I don’t want to sound cocky and what not, but I mean if you don’t love yourself then who will? I love the fact that I am an African American girl who embraces her culture. I love the fact that I’m smart as hell. I love the fact that I’m an athlete. I love the fact that I am outgoing. I love the fact that I inspire and encourage other people to do better. I love me for being me. I never used to tell myself these things until now, and since then, I’ve felt nothing but good about myself. I am a working progress this year. My friends would be so proud of me for saying this.
Next…
I love my family. They get on my last nerves, but I wouldn’t be the person I am today without them. They love me and support my every move. I’ve also noticed that not everyone has the same family connection as I do, which in turn, makes me love and appreciate my family even more.
Next…
I love my friends and teachers. My friends are my backbone. They are there for me when my family isn’t. They support me in a way that no one else can!
Next…
I love food and clothes. Those of you that know me, know that I have a very keen sense of style. I can go from “a whole young man” to a “sporty girl” to a “ whole jawn”. I gassed myself up a bit there, but my point is that my style is very versatile. I can switch it up at any given moment. I love to shop, I love putting outfits together, and I love buying clothes that no one else has. I also love food. For a skinny girl, I can eat! At least that is what my grandma told me. I eat every single moment of the day. Food is my life! And I literally scroll down the food pages on twitter and favorite or retweet almost every picture. Yeah, I have no life. I know.
Essentially, my point is that I love many things, just not equally.
I’m going to have to borrow from Donna because I also think love is anything that makes you truly happy. There are different levels to love, ranging from puppy love to the ultimate consummate love, but no matter what type of love it is, love is still love. Many people like to put an age restriction on love, especially when it involves children, because they think that some people are too young to understand what love is. However, even if someone’s sense of love isn’t the passionate, you-complete-me kind of love and it's just the I-find-you-cute kind of love, whatever they love still makes them happy, and I think that is all that really matters.
ReplyDeleteI have many loves, but the one love that never fails to brighten up my mood is food. Eating is my favorite thing to do. I just feel so happy eating food that I take small nibbles to try to make my food last longer. I always savour every single bite, so much so that I annoy all my friends with my constant chewing. I don’t even realize what I’m doing until somebody points it out, mainly Kayla because it annoys the hell out of her. If I’m ever really moody and frowny, it’s because I have not eaten yet. All of the times that I’ve ever gotten in trouble for a bad attitude was caused by a lack of food. I know this because every single time, after I ate my late lunch, my mood immediately perked up and I didn’t feel so bitchy and terrible anymore. If I ever refuse food or snacks, I’m probably having a really off day. On the day of my chapter 3 calc test, I was so stressed out that I didn’t feel hungry, which is really weird for me. When Alfonso offered me his snacks, because I always mooch off of him, even he knew that I was having a really bad day when I declined. I just really love food because it makes me happy. One time I even wrote a whole love letter to my cousin talking about how much I missed the food in her city. And now I’m writing a whole paragraph…
Another one of my loves, which is a pretty recent one, is makeup. I’ve always had a fascination with makeup since I was little child. I would have these makeover sessions with my older cousins and sloppily apply colorful pigments to their face, and they would do the same to me. However, I was never allowed to actually use makeup until this summer. It started with just filling in my eyebrows, then coloring my lips, curling my lashes, and then just moving on to my entire face. Wearing makeup is not an insecurity thing for me. I love myself with makeup, but even more without it. Makeup is just my outlet for creative and artistic expressions. It takes a lot of skills to perfect a winged liner or drawing on eyebrows when you don’t have any or even sculpting out and defining your face. I’m constantly looking at makeup videos on youtube and learning their techniques, and browsing through instagram and admiring other girls’ makeup.
I, of course, love my family and friends. I’m just really bad at expressing my love for people. We don’t say “I love you” in my family. Love is just shown through actions, and I think that’s okay. My love for food and makeup is obviously different than my love for my family and friends, and I show my love them in different ways. I can say I love makeup and I love food, but it’s harder for me to go up to somebody and tell them I love them in a serious manner. However everything and everyone that I love makes me happy.
Love. We’ve either lost love’s meaning, or expanded it.
ReplyDeleteSex, to some, may be loveless. Is it wrong? Maybe. But if an individual finds no meaning in sex, for whatever reason, then, to them, of course sex would be loveless and rightfully so. Should they lie and say “yes I find sex very important and precious” even if they do not? Or should they take pride in the other actions or things that they do find valuable and precious?
Sex, to others, may truly be valuable and precious. Every single time. Simply the connection of human bodies and spirits may arouse a sort of love in them. Is it wrong to find every sexual encounter absolutely lovely and important? Maybe. But if an individual finds endless meaning in sex, as a whole, whose to say they are wrong?
The positions on sex come in inconceivable numbers. similarly, but more so, the positions on love do as well.
Love’s lost all meaning: maybe. I’d prefer to say that love’s lost all value. Relationships, they’re based around sex. And, while sex is always an action of love for me, sex isn’t always an action of love for everyone. It’s an action of dominance, of control, and of power. If relationships aren’t based around sex they don’t last long. Prude, used as a word to describe spouses, has become more common. And more insulting. Love, however, may not be based around sex for people that base relationships around sex. Because for those same people, love may not be determined by a relationship. In pop culture? Hell, in average society? Yes, love has lost value. But, even though many people would not be able to answer the question “what does love mean?”, an answer exists. And I know this because I have an answer to that question. And so do the people I surround myself with.
Love does get thrown around a lot. Not a bad thing. Everyone would rather hear someone rambling about how much they love something rather than how much they don’t. But, maybe throwing around the word love diminishes its level of power to the level of power the word like has. I guess you lose the line between like and love. Or admire and love. Or appreciate and love. And I guess that could lead to misguided relationships...based out of ignorance and lust and everything love gets confused with.
What is love? What does it mean? I said I had an answer but I didn’t promise words...I’ll do the best I can. Love is a feeling. No, not an emotion. A feeling. A feeling where everything around you slows down. And out of all the things and people and noises and smells surrounding you, one thing or person or noise or smell really catches your attention. And in that instant, everything becomes more beautiful. Because the feeling of love presents itself to you and from that feeling you learn not only to love that thing that caught your attention but to love everything that lead you to looking in its direction too. Often when people claim they experience love at first sight, they can vividly describe the setting in which they first caught sight of the person they fell for. Anyway, love means all of the things it gets confused for combined, and that’s why, so often, it gets confused for those things. Love, you feel it and you know you’re feeling it because everything else goes away. Love is living in the moment. Love is forgetting and remembering all at one. Love can be bitter or sweet. Love can be both! For some, love is an escape...the only safe escape.
Characteristics? I don’t know, there’s tons. They’re all different for everyone. Some find love in romance, others in adventure, and others in rebellion. I don’t know. Everyone’s different. For me, I find love in awareness. And truth. And simple things like that.
What do I love?
I love the smell of real, organic, healthy soil. The kind with worms crawling in it and little stones and plant fossils. I love it because it helps me to forget by reminding me of what’s good: the coincidence that we live on such a giving planet, the chance that I am alive in this moment loving the Earth while others hurt it, the sky because it is cleaner than most other skies, the ability to breathe, my odd connection with nature, simply the way the dirt cleans my hands or chemical bullshit and things like that.
DeleteI love puppies because they remind me to live in the moment. They remind me that temporary happiness is okay to give in to. They remind me to appreciate the little things, like water and walks. Because water and walks literally make their day. They remind me to forgive. I love puppies because a lot of people don’t. They remind me not to stress and to breathe and to stop crying.
I love helping. I love the look on people’s faces when they tell me that, after listening to my perspective on their situation, I changed their perspective to a more forgiving, peaceful, understanding one. I love it because I genuinely love each person on this planet. I see the good in everyone and yeah that might fuck me over sometimes but I believe it’s there, no matter what. I love people because I see myself in everybody and I see things they wish they weren’t and I care for them and love helping them change their outlook. I love a lot of things because I love love itself...it’s probably the most important thing to me.
I love who I am with. I love that even though we’ve gone through rough times mostly due to my incessant anxiety and paranoia, he’s still here. I know it’s love because I can literally feel our bodies connecting even if we aren’t touching. I know it’s love because I can look into his eyes and see everything, the whole world from his POV, and I can feel all that he has felt and he can do the same with me. I know it’s love because it isn’t about anything but positivity and peace and passion and, I know it’s REALLY hard to believe but I have never cried more tears of joy in my life. I know it’s love because sometimes it’s so strong it hurts. It’s so strong it’s scary! Anyway, that’s what I love.
To me, levels of love do exist. But, in my own life, I find no reason to acknowledge the levels. I love in the moment which is different than loving long term and those are the two general classifications of love.
Love, at least to me, is just that warm feeling you get when you care about something or someone so much that “caring” about it or them doesn’t seem enough anymore and you have to use the word “love.” I don’t know much about romantic love (I know nothing about romantic love) but the other kinds of love I could talk about all day because I love so many things and I guess a few people. I’m not quite sure what counts as a “characteristic” but love is like when it’s freezing cold outside and you step into a house that’s really warm. Sometimes love feels like jumping into a cold pool when it’s 103 degrees outside and resurfacing before you start to feel like you’re drowning. Once in awhile, love is watching a really good musical and feeling like you want to cry and laugh at the same time so you do both. Actually, I like that best. Love, to me, is laughing and crying at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI say I love a lot of things. I love desserts. I love musicals, even the ones that make me sad. I love singing, even though I sound like a dying whale. I love wearing sweatpants and playing MarioKart, even if it’s Rainbow Road. I love quirky cat books, and tapestries, and jokes about Donald Trump, and Harry Potter, and Shake Shack, and trashy television shows that make me feel good about myself. But in all honesty, none of those things are really worthy of the word “love.” Except maybe musicals and dying whale singing and Harry Potter. But I use the word “love” a lot because saying I “really really really really really really really like” something is time-consuming and with the amount of the things that I “really really really really really really really like,” it would get extremely annoying after a while. The things that I really do “love” aren’t ever things. It’s always people.
I love my grandparents, and my aunts, and my uncles, and most of my cousins. I love my brother, I love my mom, and I love my dad. I love the few friends that I have, and I love some of my teachers here at Oak too. But while I can go on and on about how I love dying whale singing, if I truly love someone, I can’t say it. I can’t say I love you to my parents, and definitely not my brother. Sometimes I worry that they think I DON’T love them, just because it’s hard for me to say. I can throw the word out in meaningless conversations, but if I really mean it, there’s no way that I’m opening my mouth to say it. I try to show that I love people in other ways, but the “love” word is a no no.
So I guess love for me is the opposite of what it’s supposed to be. What I’m supposed to “love” I can’t say that I “love” and the things that are meaningless and trivial I outright say that I “love.” But classifying and prioritizing this won’t change my ways. The thought of telling my mom that I love her makes me too uncomfortable to function so I’ll stay loving musicals, dying whale singing, and Harry Potter.
What is love? This is such a hard question to think about. I have been stuck on the answer since this blog was put up. I'm not exactly sure what love is but I can give it a try. Love is a variety of many different things. It is the most powerful emotion a human being can feel. Love is something you feel towards something or someone. It's something that doesn't come easy. To love someone or something means you care and always will care for them or it no matter what. It's when you can't live without someone or something because it would kill you to not have them/it around. It's when you go to that someone/something when you have no one or nothing else to lean on. Love is something that's strong and is mean to be forever. It's something you never get tired of even if the person or it annoys the heck out of you. It makes you happy, sad, want to jump off a building, and sometimes even just burst out in joy. Love is something indescribable. I love so many things like my parents, friends, and the rest of my family but it's a different kind of love. I don't have a significant other that I love so the one thing that fits my definition of love is cheer. People may laugh but honestly, it's my life. I would give up anything to be able to cheer. It's something I'm absolutely passionate about. I've been cheering for about 14 years so basically my whole life. I absolutely love it. I love so many things about it. The stunts, team bonding, the cheers, and just being good at something makes me love it. I know I'm good at other things but this is something that takes hard work and dedication. I would not be where I am today if I did not do cheer. It taught me time management and to never give up on something you love. My 8th year of cheering I quit for 2 days and it was the worst 2 days of my life. Yes, I said 2 days lol. I don't know why I quit but coming back was the best decision I made. The 2 days made me realize that giving up on cheer would make me the stupidest person ever. I’ve did Rec cheer, competition cheer, and now high school cheer and it has honestly been the best years ever. It's something I will always care for even if I don't continue it in college. I can go on and on and on about cheer. It has made me a completely new person and if it wasn't for the hard work and dedication I wouldn't be cheer captain as a junior when seniors are on the team. My love for this will be everlasting and no one will ever change that. Putting a classification on things that I previously said I loved does change perspective on love because now I'm truly realizing what I honesty love.
ReplyDeleteI would define love as something that you would put before yourself, whether it be an object or a person.
ReplyDeleteI love my family, pets and few close friends, obviously. I would always put them before myself and that is how I attempt to show my love. I would agree that could be a corrupt way of showing my love, but that is how I know it. Putting a classification on love makes me debate what love really is.
I love the comfort of bedroom and I know that is a weird thing to say, believe me. The comfort I feel when I am in my bed, under my blankets is my favorite thing in the world because I feel like nothing can touch me and I am finally safe. I believe that it may be unhealthy, though because this causes me to spend 80% of my life in my room. The other 20% being when I am in school and when I am with my family. The fact that I love the comfort of my room so much makes me want to change my definition of love because I cannot necessarily put the comfort of my bedroom before me. Instead of doing what is best for me, such as going out into actual sunlight, I use the comfort of my bedroom as an excuse not to do that.
I love my animals in a different way than I love my bedroom. It is such a great feeling knowing that I can come home to four little animals (although my one cat is not even close to little) that love me no matter what I do. They will spend hours with me and never get sick of it.
I will admit that I throw the word love around quite a lot, but when I actually love something it becomes a different word to me. I use it in situations where I do not actually mean that I love something, but when I do mean it in that way it is very obvious. It has not always been easy for me to figure that out, though. I've had to tell a few different people that I love them, when I did not really mean it before I understood. I did not know that I did not mean it, but looking back now, I do not know how I did not know.
After writing this, though, I feel as if we think about it too much. I know "love" seems to be a sacred word, but why do we make it like that? Unfortunately, people will use this word to trick others. It can be a wonderful word with beautiful context, but at the same time it seems very condescending to me.
I like to think love exists. It has to be. Without it, I feel like we’d just be robots, so boring and monotone. And I don’t think life would be as enjoyable if we were.
ReplyDeleteThe way I see it, there are two different types of love: There’s love. Then there’s love-love. What a great way to label them, am I right? “Love” is like those, as Tim puts it, dollar bills you throw during a strip club. Inappropriate, but relatable. You just toss it out into the world without a second thought (SAT vocab word: Impetuous. Wooo!) And it means absolutely nothing to you. Saying phrases such as, “Oh I love your shoes!” or “I love your hair!”--- those play no effect on you whatsoever. Sorry, but its true. In a way, “Love” is almost used as complements. Now, “Love-love”; that, my friend, is something so unimaginable. Without realizing it, you are affected greatly by it. You become so passionate towards the idea, hobby, or person. To put it simple, it’s like a drug. Whenever you’re having a horrible day, and just want to escape, you turn to this-- whatever it may be-- and instantly its like Aladdin has taken you to a whole new world (Get it, cause my name is Jasmine…). You’re happy, you feel complete. And to me, that is love.
One thing I absolutely love is photography. I don’t take pictures just to post on instagram. I don’t take countless of selfies on my phone. Nor do I take pictures of random people, that’d be weird. No. I take pictures of the scenery around me, of the memories that are performing right before me. I love capturing the way the sun hits the ocean as it sets, or the smiles of my little cousins playing on the playground. I love the idea of looking back at these pictures in the future and be hit with a wave of nostalgia. To be honest, I already do that now. Every once in awhile, I look at my california pictures. And it makes me happy just looking at them. (I took quite a lot). I just love taking photos.
Over the years, I’ve come to learn what I truly love (love-love) and what I just love. Its hard. You think you love something, when in reality, you don’t. The things I thought I loved definitely changed my perspective. I thought I loved my phone, but I could live without it. I realized I loved materialistic things, and that made me so narrow-minded, the thought of it makes me sick. But then I found other things to fill in the gap, and it changed my whole outlook on everything, especially love.
The word love has many meanings and also different meanings to different types of people. To some people love is an attraction to a specific person. While others may think love is a dangerous feeling that we as humans acquire through relationships. Lao Tzu once said, “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” But the way I see it, is that love is a emotion that can make you the happiest person alive but love can also be the emotion that tears you apart. Love can be expressed by showing someone that you appreciate and care about them.
ReplyDeleteI use the word love almost everyday. I may walk around the hallway and see someone with a nice shirt and I might say, “I really love that shirt.” Another common thing I say is, “I love chocolate.” What I really mean is that I really like the shirt or I really like chocolates. I don’t use the word love to describe people unless it’s my family members or some of my closest friends. Love is usually used to describe a person that you are in a relationship with. I walk around the halls of sunny Oakcrest High School, and I hear couples saying that they love each other. The thing that ponders me the most is out of all of those couples, how many actually love each other and become soul mates for life? Not many of them. So the real question is that is love real? I don’t know because I have never had a boyfriend in my life but from what I see, I think that love is just an imaginary feeling that we feel obligated to have. Love doesn’t last forever. I mean sure I love my family members and my friends, but that’s just a feeling that I have.
So what do I really love? I love my best friend who has been my best friend since 6th grade. She has always been there whenever I’m feeling down. She always did her job as a friend to cheer me up. She made herself available whenever I needed her. I am always grateful towards her because she made me feel as if I had a purpose in life.
Another thing that I really love is my new puppy that I got over Christmas. For Christmas, I got an English Bulldog. I named him Buddy because I am 100% that he is going to be my lifetime companion. He was only 12 weeks old when I got him. He is honestly the cutest puppy I have ever seen. Although he has been chewing everything within his limits, I find him the cutest thing in the world. So for now, I’m gonna call Buddy my boyfriend. Although I’ve had other pets, but I have never had a puppy so this is my first time and I’m honestly nervous because I’m not sure if I can be a good parent.
Even after writing this blog, my feelings about love still has not changed. I am still searching for the real answer to, “What is love?” So until I find the answer, I’m gonna say that love is not a real thing because I have yet to experience a real relationship.
It’s not the idea of love that I think about. It’s the way loving something or someone makes me feel. Love can be anything you want it to be. Love can be fun, crazy, hurtful, warming, mistakes, chances, anything at all. I guess figuring out which type of love you receive from a person is the experience that people strive for. Love is just one big mystery and going into the unknown can be scary for a lot of people. Especially because there’s always room for disappoint and even more when you hold expectations. I think the reason that love is a scary thing to some people is that it’s never concrete. It could always change and someone’s opinion of love could always change. For some people love fills an absence from another feeling they don’t receive. To me love is just a weird subject because there’s no definite definition. It all just depends on who you ask and what love is to them or the type of feeling they receive from loving someone or an object. I’m not sure if love for an object is possible, I think the object would have to have some type of sentimental value in order for me to love it. Or if the love I have for an object makes up for a type of love I don’t receive from someone than I’m more likely to love it. A lot of people love money and that’s because it allows them to buy things that fill that void that they have and it also makes them feel like they have more. Some people think that animals don’t have feelings but they definitely do. I look at animals in the same way that I look at people. Animals can be sad and hurt and can also feel loved. You’re the center of your pet’s worlds and when they feel love from their owner they’re the happiest. The kind of love that comforts people is the best kind. When you’re having a really bad day and the only thing you can think of is going home to be comforted by the person who knows you the best. So far in my life love has been like a safe haven but also something that I wish I never felt because than I wouldn’t be hurt as much. That’s the worst part about loving. You get hurt the most when you’re in love.
ReplyDeleteLove -an intangible thing that can be seen or felt. It can refer to a strong affection and an emotion of a strong attraction and personal attachment to someone or something. Love is an action, not just a feeling. Love understands and accepts differences. Love is unconditional. Love includes letting go.
ReplyDeleteUsually when I say I love something, I don’t actually mean that I love it. I mean I like it a lot. It’s the same as when I say that I hate something. The reason I use such strong words to describe what I’m really trying to say is because people don’t comprehend how I really feel when I use weak words.
Example: I like my phone a lot. vs. I love my phone.
I don’t like the color yellow at all. vs. I hate the color yellow.
However, I do love my friends and family.
Referring back to my definition of love, I do believe that in some instances I could actually love something such as a song or a movie or something I don’t see very often. There was a point in time when I was infatuated with the song Call Me Maybe. I could play it countless times and never get tired of it and I truly loved everything about it. The beat, lyrics, the music video. But now, I can barely listen to it once without having to turn it off. Around that same time, I started to watch and re-watch this movie Another Cinderella Story. Now, I love it and I’ve definitely seen it more than 300 times. I know every line and even when the commercial breaks are, but a year from now I might hate watching the same thing over and over again. Technically, I don’t stop loving anything. My likes and dislikes change. I still remember how I felt when Call Me Maybe came on and how that catchy pop song made me love it. But since I don’t listen to that type of music anymore, I don’t value it as I used to.
Putting a classification on things I have loved doesn’t change my perspective on what the meaning of love should be. Things I love constantly change because I am constantly changing.There are very few things that I probably will love for the rest of my life and I’m not sure what they are. Up until the 7th grade the only candy I ever ate was Reese’s. I literally woke up one morning and couldn't stomach the taste of peanut butter with chocolate. People wise, I will always love the people I have ever loved. This includes the people who don’t speak to me anymore for whatever reason. Whether my likes and dislikes change or not, I believe that once I have loved something, a part of me will always love it.
When I think of the word love I think of a lot of things, a lot of goods things but a lot of bad things too. What I love now is different from what I loved when I was 12, and even different from what I loved 6 months ago. I really cannot put my definition of love into my own words without naming people, places, or things. Love is something that can keep me up all hours of the night, love is a craving, love is the best and worst thing ever, and love is happiness. My love for my friends is happiness. My love for ice cream is a craving. I think a lot of people think love is a fairy tail, which will last forever with butterflies and rainbows and all that jolly stuff, but I disagree. Love is real, but I don’t think forever actually means forever and that’s what ruins some definitions of love. I don’t say forever doesn’t actually mean forever because I am biter, which I’m not, I just know people and things are temporary. Sadly, nothing last forever and it is the sad truth.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to things I love, things I actually adore, I can name a bunch. People, places, things, anything, I love a lot of different things. But that is exactly where I am going wrong. Most of the things I love are just things.
Anyways, I love myself. 6 months ago I could not say that and be telling the truth, but now I can say that with confidence. I truly love myself and my strength and the way I am finally getting everything together. I love the way I can entertain and distract myself and I love the confidence I have within now too. I love my independence. I can sit at home on a Friday night by myself and be 100% content. Most girls my age cant do that without complaining, but I just love my own company so I don’t mind it.
Of course I love my family, but I really do love my sister. I sure as hell don’t act like it but I love Olivia like no other. Like I raised her, which I basically did. I know I love Olivia because I am so extremely overprotective of her and when she hurts, I hurt. I can watch Olivia do something she loves, like play softball or cheer, and get emotional. It is so weird and I hate admitting how soft I am when it comes to my sister, but she is my baby sister and the things I would do for her are insane.
Love is a crazy, confusing, and beautiful thing. I don’t get love and I don’t know if I ever will but I loved all my experiences with love- good and day. Maybe one day in 8 years I will meet “the one” and answer this blog post again with a completely different answer, but as of right now this is all I have.
Love is such a beautiful thing, especially when it is uses sincerely. Love is when you appreciate someone or something to an extreme. This would be someone or something that you could never get board of. You could basically spend the reminder of your life with that person or thing. When you love someone or something, they or it is frequently on your mind. Maybe not in an obsessive way--or in a very obsessive way--, but that person or thing will come to your mind in the course of the day normally.
ReplyDeleteThis may seem weird, but I like hanging out with guys. No, I am not gay, but there are many benefits that come with just hanging out with guys. First of all, you can basically do anything you want and there is no judgement…well maybe a little judgment. But you really can just be yourself around your guy friends, if you are a guy. I would imagine that this is also true for girls. I just think that when you can act yourself around friends you know very well, you get to be even better friends. Another great thing is that guys understand each other, one thing most girls cannot do. If you’re a guy, you can complain to almost any of your guy friends as much as you want, and they will see exactly where you’re coming from. And unlike when girls complain, these complaints will not be petty, and they will actually be understood. But the thing that I really love about hanging out with my guy friends is that no matter how board we are, within a few minutes we can normally find the stupidest thing ever and make it the most enjoyable one.
This is not saying that I do not hang out with girls. For God sake, there were plenty of girls around for the invention of the best game ever, Dizzy Sack. And man if I didn’t try to look or act cool 10 times a day for some random girl, I think I would probably be even weirder than that guy that loves hanging out with other guys. But there really isn’t anything comparable to hanging out with your best friends, pulling all-nighters like a bunch of bums.
This changes the way that I view things that I have said that I love because I have never though this deeply about ways to voice things I love. Since mine is playing with guys, it really can’t be worded too many non-weird ways, but when you word things, it makes you think even deeper. I do still think this is the correct definition of love, though that is only 17 years of love, and only about 14 years of communication, so who knows, love could be totally different.
ReplyDeleteThe concept of love has been one that many people have attempted to properly define and describe and it is almost impossible to do so. My boy Robert Sternberg came up with a “formula” to define love back in 1987, and the difference between all kinds of love. He describes it as the three building blocks of love—Intimacy, Commitment, and Passion. Intimacy is supposed to cause partners who are “in love” build a stronger bond while commitment is the conscious decision to be loyal to someone, but passion is plain ole sexual attraction to someone. Beyond his theory of the love triangle (a possible pun, hmm) he deciphered that there are seven kinds of love; we can’t even get a grip on the literal word let alone different categories but somehow he managed. They include: consummate, fatuous, companionate, romantic, empty, infatuated, liking, non-love. If you want to know the definition behind all of them in more detail Google “Sternberg love building blocks”, trust me it is worth the laugh. Those seven types of love are absolutely mind-boggling and quite unnecessary honestly. Why should a generation such as mine, sorry 90s babies, even attempt to acknowledge what love is if we misuse it every day of our lives. Every single day we all are guilty of saying something to the effect that “I love that shirt—I absolutely love your hair—this song is love OH MY GAWWD” you get the point, this over use is what is killing the true meaning of love. The true meaning of love being, at least how I view it, something or someone that means the world to you. Something about s/he the drives you crazy and the thought of them leaving your life hurts deeper than any knife could cut. That is why Sternberg’s theory cracks me up; for the simple reason of you can’t define love using a formula it just does not work. I am a firm believer that love is blind so how can someone define it with such stereotypical and blunt reason. I have always been a Debbie downer about love, but that was before I knew what it truly was. Characteristics of love should include the usual sensual and emotional bond but it should also connect with a mental compatibility with an item or person. Yes it is possible for someone to love an item as well as a person or animal, it is all about whatever connection you have with it/them.
Things that I have previously loved over the years have proven to be the exact opposite of love. Loving, liking and enjoying something are three totally different things that everyone needs to get a grip on. The only things I love in life are as followed: My Mom-Mom, my best friend/boyfriend, my dog and cat, and I. It has been a rough road to come to those conclusions throughout my life but with little experience in the love field and finding who I am these were the best I can honestly say meet my expectations of love in its truest form.
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DeleteI do not believe that it is silly to say that you love a pair of shoes or an ice cream flavor. Everyone has different "levels" of love and they use the word "love" for many different reasons. I don't believe that its right for any of us to say that what someone loves is wrong, because who are we to judge what makes some one happy. I love Lexi, she's my best friend but if you don’t love her that doesn’t mean that my love is "wrong," it is completely right, to me. I say that I "love" something many times a day for many different reasons. The first being that I might actually love that thing or that person because it has a special meaning to me. The second being that some people need to see love or feel love around them to help them love and feel loved. I am a selfless and altruistic person, I will always put other people before myself and im okay with that. So, if I see that someone needs a little reassuring that there is still love in the world than I will do anything to help them see it. People need love even if they don’t want to admit it.
ReplyDeleteI have two separate definitions of love, one for things and one for people. I reason I love someone is because they make me unimaginably happy, I love them because they understand me and accept me for my many flaws. I will love someone that deserves my love and deserves me. Not everyone deserves all that I have to offer so I will not just hand out my love to just anyone, you may hear me tell a lot of people that I love them but you can hear the difference in my voice when I say it to someone I truly love as oppose to someone that makes me happy from time to time. I have just recently realized the person I am really "in love" with and since I've realized this I have also realized that the other person I thought I loved I didn’t really love I just loved to make them feel loved. But ill talk to you about that another time, Bunj, so moving on. The reason I will love a thing is because it brings me back to a time that help changed me and helped me grow as a person whether it was good or bad. I know it sounds kind of strange and I'm not going to be able to explain this very well but hopefully you'll understand what im trying to say. I love things that bring me back to moments, I love Skype because it reminds me of some people that really changed my life, though now I associate Skype with really bad memories I still love it because at one point it meant something to me and it still does just not in the way it used to. I think it is incredibly important to be able to differentiate the different reasons we love and even why we hate.
I guess the easiest way to explain the things I love is to list them so here goes:
I love my oldest brother and my youngest older brother, I do not love my middle brother.
I love long silent car rides in the passenger seat of my best friends car and I love the way he looks at me when I stare out the window and don’t say a word.
I love watching my friends do the things they love, like making and editing films.
I love pictures, they mean more to me than almost anything else.
I love myself because I am important and I don’t need anyone to tell me that because I already know that I am. I may be a work in progress but I am something that I will never give up on.
I love writing because it has always been something to help ease my mind and I think its something I am decent at.
One of the most important things that I love is making people happy. It is something I try to do everyday and something I will try to do for the rest of my life because to me it is the most important thing I can do in my life. I know that I was put on this earth to help others and make them happy and I love that that is my life long job.
"Does putting a classification on things you have previously said you "loved" change your perspective on what the meaning of love should be?" No.
ReplyDeleteIn my first blog post about love, was when I was fresh out of a heartbreak. My heart was shattered at the time and I honestly hated love. I hated the idea and how I could love someone so much and how they could just leave. But as of now my feelings have changed so much throughout the past months. I am no longer bitter and my heart no longer aches. I no longer hate love and I no longer am in love. Yes I still love that person as a person and care about them, but I am no longer in love with them or want to be with them. I believe the word love does get thrown around so much. Young people these days date for like a week and say they love each other when they probably do not even know what love is. Love is a great feeling and I am a strong believer that everyone has their true love out there. Yes, I sound cleasay but it is true. Love is a feeling that is indescribable. Love is when you truly just adore someone and would do absolutely anything for them. Love is thrown around for a lot of materialistic things. Like people say (including me) “I love shoes” or “I love clothes.” The term should be like, you like those things a lot but you do not absolutely love them. They do not give you that feeling of love and comfort, they give you happiness and love is not always happiness. Currently and forever will I love my family. I will always love them, who doesn’t? Family are people you would do anything for. And just like being in love romantically, loving family is not always great. You fight. Families Always fight. But at the end of the day you know you will always have each other and can be there to support one another no matter what, and that is what love really is. I consider my friends family also. I talk about my friends so much it seems like I am obsessed with them, but I really am just so blessed to have them. I would do anything for my friends. I truly love all of them and there is not one thing I would not do for them.
Now that I think about it love is serious. It is not something you just say or take lightly. Now that I have really thought about love and wasn’t just ranting after heartbreak, I realized I say it all the time about objects and other materialistic things. I do not actually love them I just like them a lot. The word love means a lot and never should be taken lightly. Anyone can say they love someone or something however they might not actually love them. To be in love and to love someone or something are two different stories. To be in love with someone means you heart beats rapidly when you see them. You get butterflies in your stomach. Your entire world lights up just by seeing their face. But when that does not happen it does not mean you do not love the person. It just means you are not in love with them. Humans would not survive without love because it is just essential to our existence. To be important to someone, to be loved. We need it and even if us people use it a little too much, it is not always a bad thing.
Love is defined many different way, it all depends on the person. How they have been treated, their trials and tribulations, and what kind of people have told them they loved them. I define love as something you don’t want to live without and something or someone you would do anything and everything for.
ReplyDeleteLove tends to be something that’s safe, something you don’t have to worry about, something comfortable. Which is like my relationship with Emily. I never have to worry about losing her because who else could handle either one of us. When you see something you really love you see a forever with it. Love is selfless and sacrifice. One must do what’s best for the two of them because it’s no longer just them anymore. Love isn’t something that can be thrown away in an instant or worn down, if the love is there it’s there to stay, it’s made so strong for a reason. If the relationship can simply be let go of it wasn’t love at all.
I have learned that lesson the hard way. When I think back to every person I have “loved” I realize that was not the case. It upsets me knowing that I was even dumb enough to use that word on people that also misused it. When I looked at those people I was happy, sure, I saw a pretty face and a decent personality however there wasn’t much more than that. Now I know what love is and what it looks like. It’s safety, it’s knowing that she isn’t the first person I’ve looked at with a mouthful of “forever’s” and “I love you” but knowing I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure she’s the last. It’s watching her do her homework on a skype call and can’t help but smile. It’s making eye contact and seeing a future, both of you seeing the same future. It’s no second guessing feelings. It’s knowing for the first time in your life something is right. It is always wanting to make her smile. It’s saying yes to literally anyone who questions if you really love her. It’s learning to compromise and not give up in the middle of a fight. It’s knowing what you have is too good to go of. Its respect for one another. It’s seeing the potential she doesn’t see in herself and acknowledging how much wisdom on girl can hold. It’s not being religious whatsoever but knowing it was some kind of blessing her walking into your life. This post will probably make Taylor Van sick to her stomach but it’s all true. I can truly say I love a girl big blue eyes, an even bigger heart, and a brilliant mind.
I love Kristina Ropiecki.
Ever since the lonely holidays, I have recently found myself frequently pondering over what love is and and what it means to me. So much so that I can barely focus in school and that my talkative-ness level, if there was such a thing, turned from a 9 to a four. (On a scale of one to ten for those that enjoy life pestering people on technicalities.) Depressing I know. But it has truly has unhealthily and annoying pervaded my mind for the past couple of weeks.
ReplyDeleteLove is an attraction between two or more things. Emotionally. “Oh Jared I love you mentally!!” says a deranged person. But other than that I believe that using the word love implies: for a long time. I would give a value to it, some made up number of days, weeks, or months, but that would only apply to me. I can't speak for other people because it's different for everyone.
Something I love has to love me back or at least give me satisfaction in return for my, in a way, “Constant appreciation.” A pair of shoes wouldn't love me back, but it would in turn grant me the ability for my feet to be impervious to the harshness of terrain. Satisfaction for constant appreciation. That is KEY to a good loving relationship. Now on to ANOTHER ONE.
Love has multiple levels of meaning just like there are different levels of tall (5’10’’ for Asians is tall, and there is also 6’5’’ tall for African Americans). Whether or not it seems trite and overused is different for everyone. The fact that I say I love potatoes and I love my (somewhere) girlfriend doesn't mean I like them on the same level; nor does it mean that the word “love” is used in an incorrect way. I would love to eat squash everyday for the rest of my life. I would love to spend time with -put name here- for the rest of my life. Same word, two completely different levels…unless you’re a sociopath with a squash fetish. Don’t worry, I don't judge.
All romantic comedies have one thing in common: they all deal with love. More often than not, one character announces how they feel about another. The character professes their love by saying something along the lines of “I can’t stand the thought of not being with you”. You may just dismiss the validity in this statement because I am still inexperienced with love, but it makes total sense to define love as: a feeling received when a person is reluctant to be in the absence of another person due to a romantic connection.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I understand that it is not correct to say that I “love” things, I do it more often than I realize. A good example of the word “love” being “thrown around” happened recently. I said something funny, an inside joke or something of the sort, and one unnamed acquaintance said, “I love you, Kassia!”. If they had used the word “love” correctly, I think I would have had a heart attack, collapsed, and died. Though, because I can understand that nowadays we kids like to misuse words left and right, I simply laughed along with the statement.
So, I have established that for me, there are two kinds of love (as of now, of course). The first kind is playful love, or love with quotation marks. Things I playfully love are snow, hot chocolate, the opportunity to relax and binge-watch Netflix, et cetera. “Love” is a simpler word to describe my enjoyment for some factors of my life. Meaningful love, on the other hand, is not enjoyment per se, but rather a deep appreciation for someone or something. I really appreciate the company of my Mom and Dad, and therefore I love them. I really do appreciate spending time with my best friends, Erynn and Elena, and therefore I love them. I deeply appreciate any opportunity to see my older brother who currently lives in Florida, and therefore I love him as well.
It really is “never a bad idea” to give the word “love” some extra thought. Each of these blogs makes me think about something ordinary in an extraordinary way. Even though this is our second blog about love (I thought it would be a bit repetitive), I have compiled an updated list of things I “love” versus things I “really” do love. I have even come up with MORE ways to define the darn thing. But this is nothing compared to the Eskimo language, which evidently has 32 different words that all refer to the source of all this fuss and commotion: love.
Love is tricky because only some people find it romantically however many find it through family and friends. Love for someone is when you care about their happiness before yours and when you love someone romantically I will only guess that it means when you are without them you feel like you need them. When you love someone you do not only think of them when you are lonely at 3 am but also when you are at your busiest at 3pm. Loving friends and family is when you would do anything for that person, you would immediately drop whatever you are doing in order to help or just be there for the person you love. Loving someone means sacrifice to let go of maybe something you like in order to give the person you love what they like. Love is at some points meaningless. Since the word is used endlessly who really knows if it is real? Of course there is always that glimmer of hope that one will find his or her true love you can never truly believe someone when they say they love you because sometimes they are not being truthful. You can like someone so much however you may not love them. Another characteristic of love is being able to forget about your fears and take chances with someone. You must let down your walls to let others get to know you. Love is trusting, when you trust the person you love so much there is no room for jealousy. Love also represents faithfulness also meaning you trust the person you love with being faithful to you, and trusting someone with your life, secrets and your heart. Love represents understanding each other even through fights when you completely disagree. When you love someone you must listen to them completely and at least attempt in understanding where they are coming from to fully understand their decisions and thoughts. Love can be represented by communication throughout fights instead of just taking the easy route and walking away when things get hard you work things out by talking and understand each other. Romantically I have yet to “love” :) However luckily I have experienced love through family, friends and sports. My family I have loved since I was born. I know I love them because no matter how much they may annoy me I know that without them I would not have my morals or goals. My family pushes me to be a better version of myself every day. I learn from my family and they are always teaching me things I will need when I do not have them down the hall. I know I love my friends because I miss them at the busiest points of my life. I can be completely swamped with homework, sports and chores and can sit on the floor of my room and wish to be with them. I cannot live without my friends because same goes with my family they teach me things, they support me and help me in becoming a better me. Lastly, throughout all of the complainants and crying I love sports. Without sports I would not have such a big commitment in my education and school. I know I love sports because without them I would not be sane or relaxed. Although it seems hypocritical to say sports give me time to relax even though they seem to do the opposite, sports give me time to forget about due dates and high school drama.
ReplyDeleteThinking about the dumb things that I have previously said I loved is a little sickening because it only means I contributed to the fake lovers. I hate when people say them love things because they do not they only like them and after writing this blog I find myself to be hypocritical because I say I love food and ice-cream and dumb things like that all the time. Love is supposed to be reserved for the epitome of feelings that you can have for someone not something you say when the latest video game came out and you cannot stop playing it. Love should only be used when you cannot see a life without the thing you just declared your love for whether it is a person or object if you truly love that person or thing you cannot see breathing another moment possible with that person or thing by your side. When you love someone you will do whatever it takes to make that person happy because ultimately that should make you happy and you cannot see how it was ever possible to live before you met your lover.
DeleteAh the well known word- love. Love can be defined in so many different ways, by many different people. Love can be used in the simplest meaning, “I love this shirt”, or be used in the deepest part of your heart, “I love you”. It’s difficult to come up with a definition of love because, it’s an emotion-how we feel about something or someone. We all feel different emotions every single day, some good, some not so good. Love is a very special emotion-feeling, that not everybody feels right away, but when they do, it will be the most astonishing thing they will experience. So, without further ado, my definition; Love is laying in bed all day and reading a great book, love is drinking hot chocolate on a cold winter’s day, love is cuddling up with him all day, love is looking out my window and seeing snow on the ground, love is smelling the rain that pours down, love is feeling pure joy when I’m with the most important person in the world, love is being held so tightly in my favorite human beings’ arms, love is having tenderness towards my special person, love is that tight feeling in my chest when I see him, love is smiling so hard at him whenever I see him because he gives me joy, love is laying in bed with him for hours on end-sleeping; being in his arms. Love is paying attention to him while he is talking about anything-especially something he loves. Seeing him smile while he is talking about what he loves- is love to me. Love is showing how much he means to me, love is caring for another person, love is sacrifice, love is pure, love is genuine, love is the greatest thing a human being can encounter. Love is the color yellow. Not the ugly yellow, the sunset yellow. It is calming to look at, it changes my mood, it makes me feel bubbly inside. I can look at the sunset for hours-days on end, (even though it isn’t possible) and never get tired of it. My love for it will always grow. Just like my love for him will always grow.The sunset yellow is our love. As I grew up, this special word became more and more significant. I grew to learn that saying, “I love this shirt” or “I love this pizza” is not the same as saying, “I love you so much” on your wedding day. Even, the deepest, darkest part of a human being, will hold love. In some way, there will always be love in a person. It is one of those emotions- feelings, that will hide, but will never disappear.
ReplyDeleteAfter numerous minutes of research, I found the word “love” comes from an Old English word “lufu” which means “love, affection, and friendliness”. Could you imagine saying “I lufu you”, it just sounds strange. My definition of love is a “passionate affection towards a person or object”, this is very similar to dictionary.com’s first definition of love, and dictionary.com claims that love is “profoundly tender” which I completely disagree with. The characteristics that would best demonstrate this definition would be feeling empty without having, at least, one thing you affectionate towards. Now what I say I love is a great question because the answer mainly consists of irrelevant things that I could easily replace. The list of things I actually love starts off with the irreplaceable things that I love such as my family, animals, friends, teams, and running. I love all of these things because they are irreplaceable, I simply cannot go out a find a substitute for them in the store or order one of them online. If I were to lose one of these things I would feel empty, for example, I get really sad when spring track ends because I'm losing friends, my team, and competitive running. The list consists of things that I have to put in effort in order to make work, which comes to why I don’t agree with the dictionary.com definition because of its use of “profoundly tender”. Love isn’t gentle, most times it’s very difficult especially depending on the circumstances that surround it. Now the things that I say I love I really don’t, most are easily replaced and if they were gone I wouldn’t feel emptiness. This list consists of FIFA, shoes, clothes, food, and music. All of these things when they are gone I just go out and get a replacement. If FIFA broke I would just go out and buy a new one, when a new one comes out I stop playing the old one and get the new one which doesn’t drastically effect how I feel about life. It’s the same with all of the things I say I love, if they were to go missing I can replace them and my life wouldn’t have any sort of feeling of emptiness. Classifying all of the things I say I love and actually love really does change my perspective on the word itself. The word love should mean “if it were to be removed from your life would you feel empty from it”. I am passionate about FIFA and all the other things I say I love but I don’t which basically makes my earlier definition invalid. After classifying the things I “love” my definition on love really changed.
ReplyDeleteL is for listening to long rants, for laying down your laundry on your bed, for listing all the reasons why you can do this.
ReplyDeleteO is for opening you up to new experiences, for obsessively asking about your family and pets, for obeying the new board game rules you made up so you don’t lose.
V is for vouching for you when you and others lose faith, for volunteering to do the dirty work, for validating your emotions and dreams.
E is for eagerly sharing your day-to-day, for emphasizing that everyone makes mistakes, for encouraging you to reach for the stars.
Love cannot be summed up with a phrase. It is what a person does. By all actions, a person loves. (Or some animals, as some pets show true loyalty and kindness to their families.)
As I’m pretty sure everyone knows, I love my mom and brother. I feel like every blog I write is about them. When I really think about it, we love each other with everything we do. I say I keep my phone off the home wifi because LTE is faster, but it’s really so there’s less devices on it so it’s faster for my mom. My mom says she will not get out of bed to take me to school because I foolishly decided to stay up later than I should, which makes me exhausted in the morning and it takes longer to get ready, but whenever I ask, she gets in the car without complaint. My brother is not that comfortable in Spanish, but he makes the effort to speak in Spanish if he remembers the right words. There is a lot of love here in this house.
Some loves are not so frequent. My aunt and all my extended family live in Colombia. Just because we are not together does not mean we do not love each other. They might not give me rides around town like my mom does, and I might not take their dog out for a walk. But when we are together, we cook together. I help them use the tablet and phones they still don’t have the hang of. We go to the beauty salon together for a pick-me-up (something I never do here). Sure, long distance relationships are tough, pero ellos son mi familia., una familia con amor fuerte.
Speaking of long distance, I can’t write about love without writing about my dad. Unfortunately, there is no plane that can take me where he is. It has been a long time since I have seen him. But he still actively shows me he loves me. I know he is always watching out. He has sent me some good people my way. Drama and choir, that’s all him too. I haven’t heard him say “I love you” in almost five years, but I feel it. Love is just what he does, and that’s what I’ll do too.
Love doesn’t have to mean the same thing for everybody. Love is mine, love is yours. It doesn’t even have to be the same thing twice. Love is limitless. Love is free. Love is amazing. I’m a poet and I know it. Goodnight everybody!
Oh Bunje, another love blog post? Really? It was hard enough writing the first one, I don’t know what the hell love is. I’ve already spent an entire blog post on how idk what it is, how am I going to write another? Well, I guess I’ll find out.
ReplyDeleteThe word “Love” indeed does get thrown around way too much nowadays. I do it with quite stupid stuff, “I love chicken tenders.” “I love my new ps4.” Although at the time of eating chicken tenders, or the way too many hours over winter break I spent on my christmas present, it may feel like I actually love these things, the “love” I decide to portray through my tiny words is most likely not genuine. I also believe that it is used way too much towards people, whether it be towards acquaintances, friends, or even a significant other. Sarah has never talked to John before in her life, but she forgot her pencil, so she turns to John “Hey, do you have a pencil I can borrow?” John says yes, gives her a pencil and Sarah says, “thanks love you.” John gets wrongfully excited and Sarah thinks nothing of it. I’m sure we’ve all seen this happen numerous amounts of times and we think nothing of it, because it really is so common for the word love to be thrown around that people really don’t think much of it anymore. There’s also the relationship issue. You believers of love at first sight are about to get mad at me if you do not stop reading, so if you get offended, both I’m sorry, and don’t say i didn’t warn you. (Before I start this story my facts may not be correct this was a while ago so if my facts are not correct, think of this as a fictional story I made up.) I will not name any names whatsoever, but I follow this guy on instagram, and this guy is older, graduated high school already, and he posts a picture kissing this girl who let’s just say is in her younger years at high school, with the caption something along the lines of “I love you so much baby I’ll love you forever.” Now first of all I do not agree with this relationship because I actually think it is illegal due to their ages, but that is not relative to this blog but I will not go into it. But I see this picture and I’m like wow, these are pretty strong words and I’ve never seen this girl on his account before. I check their bios because that is the destination to find relationship information these days, and these two have been dating for one week, one week. I truly do not believe somebody could be dating for one week and have a love as strong as they expressed in that picture comment. I’m not saying all, because I know for a fact that many actually do, but I believe young couples these days have a messed up definition of love and use it when it is not genuine.
Again I will say, I don’t believe I truly know what love is for I have not experienced it yet, excluding what I have had since birth. But i shall reiterate the definition I think love has. Love I believe is when a person’s feeling of “like” is taken to a whole nutha level (shoutout to my mans Future.) When a person cannot even look at someone without feeling a certain type of way. When no matter how bad a person treats another, their “strong liking” does not stop.
The only thing I believe I truly love is my family. Friends are great, and I think the feeling I have towards a VERY SELECT few of them may be close to love or even love, but the only people I can say undoubtedly I love is my immediate family. I’ll get specific, my mother, father, three sisters, and my grandmother on my mother’s side. I get that specific because these are the only people that have always been there since the day we met and never left. Whether it be the day I was born, the day they were born, my family has never left my side and although have pisssed me off many times, I have had this feeling throughout it all. Sadly, this is something I cannot say for very many friends. I have very few friends that have stuck with me forever and have always been there for me, and even those who have been there for as long as we’ve been friends and haven’t let me down, I feel as though we are not close enough to call it “love” or whatever thing it is I’m getting at, honestly I’m not too sure what I am saying at this point. But to get back on topic and give a closing statement to this paragraph, the only people in my life that i can truly say that I love, are my family.
DeleteP.S. Hey, nobody get offended by that last paragraph, i secretly love you all, just not exactly to the definition or as much as my blood family.
DeleteI don’t really say I love anything too often, but when I do, that shit means something. I tend to avoid that word because I feel as if everybody uses it too much. The more someone uses it, the less it has meaning. Many people just blurt out the word left and right without knowing they said it. Now, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but what if they said they loved you? Do they really mean it? Or has the word “love” just become part of their regular vocabulary, and they just spit the word out like it’s nothing? That’s why I rarely use it. When I say it, I hold meaning to it. For example, I tell my friends I love them every now and then. No, I’m not gay; it’s like “I love you bro” kind of love. I like to show them that I appreciate them.
ReplyDeleteSimilar to my past blog, love is when you put someone or something before yourself because you care so much. A perfect example of this would be my mother. I know my mom loves my siblings and I more than anything. She has sacrificed so much for me that I consider her my hero. No matter how hard life got, she never gave up because her children was the first thing on her mind. She works hard to make sure we live a great life. She is a selfless person that deserves the world. My mom is the epitome of love.I only hope one day I get to show her she’s appreciated and repay her for what she’s done for me. Just like Kanye West said in his song Hey Mama: “And when I’m older, you ain’t gotta work no more, and I’mma get you that mansion that we couldn’t afford.”
One thing I love in this world is music. Whether it be alternative/indie rock or R&B, I love music. I love being introduced to new music and I love analyzing lyrics. I like how a song can bring up a memory from the past and hit me with nostalgia. However, my favorite thing about music is that I can perfectly relate to certain songs because of the way I’m feeling. It’s like you know exactly what they’re experiencing. There’s so much music in the world that it’s sad that I won’t be able to hear it all. I appreciate music so much. It’s a shame that some people don’t explore genres. For instance, I usually listen hip hop when I’m with my friends because we like to get gassed by Future. But, mainstream hip hop gets too repetitive sometimes because all it talks about is money, possessions, and how these girls ain’t loyal. My all time favorite music genre is alternative or indie rock. The fact that multiple instruments can play together simultaneously and create a wonderful sound amazes me. Plus, I find more variety in alternative --meaning they don’t talk about the same thing. For example, there’s a song called “Antichrist” where he sings about how hard he wants to believe in God but he just can’t and he’s ashamed of it. But now I’m going off on a tangent, but it goes to show how much I love music. So if I ever find a girl with great music taste, it’s a wrap.
ReplyDeleteThis blog made me think for a long time because I felt like I already explained my ideas about love in one of my previous blog posts. But then I realized that this blog poses a completely different question, one that specifically asks “what” I love, not “who”. I know the definition of love varies from person to person, so I can’t really define it in general terms. However, I know I love something (as in an abstract idea or a place) when that thing gives me an indescribable feeling of happiness or emotion. I don’t include tangible objects in the array of things I love because, at least for me, tangible objects don’t provide an indescribable feeling of happiness. I may say I love a tangible thing (such as a Dunkin Donuts medium caramel iced coffee with milk and sugar or my Urban Decay liquid foundation), but the word “love” in this context is just an exaggeration I use to express how much I really really like a certain object. In reality, I can only think of a handful of “things” that I utterly and truly love.
Music is one of these things. I love the way lyrics and melodies can perfectly describe what I’m feeling and express the emotion I’m unable to. I love the way musicians can either make me want to jump around and scream every lyric and guitar riff or force me to sob uncontrollably. Music is one of the only things that can effectively ease my anxiety; it can just as easily give order to my disconnected and jumbled thoughts. Music is also capable of so many amazing things. It has the power to bring back old memories, both good and bad. I often find myself listening to a song and suddenly start to remember a specific event or point in my life; Music is my mental scrapbook.The best thing in the world is listening to a song and getting goosebumps because of how deeply I can connect to the lyrics and message. My unhealthy habit of blasting Nirvana with earbuds in will probably result in slight hearing loss, but it’s definitely worth it.
I’m also in love with Feminism. Before being introduced to Feminism, I simply just accepted things around me without asking why. “It’s a girl’s fault if she gets raped because didn’t you see what she was wearing?? Catcalling is a compliment, not a threat. The government has the right to legislate women’s bodies. Blue is a boy color and pink is a girl color.” Feminism taught me that I am capable of challenging these beliefs and that it’s okay to ask why. It’s given me the confidence to speak out whenever I witness sexism in my daily life and to stand up for what I believe in. I’ve also learned to not care as much about what others think. You can call me a “feminazi” or a “social justice warrior” all you want; All the insults in the world will never change how I feel about equality for men and women alike.
Last but not least, and I think you all saw this coming, I love my camp (I know I constantly write about it, sorry). If it weren’t for Frost Valley, I definitely would not be the person I am today. I’d probably be a meninist Trump supporter who listens to the autotuned trash on the radio, given my previous place of residence (gotta love north Jersey, amirite?) The people at camp are the ones who first introduced me to the concept of Feminism and the quality music that is Nirvana/ The Beatles/ Sublime/ The Red Hot Chili Peppers/ Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros/ Florence and the Machine/ Lana del Rey/ Marina and the Diamonds/ The Black Keys/ Simon and Garfunkel/ Queen/ Matt and Kim/ The Front Bottoms/ Cage the Elephant/ The Arctic Monkeys/ Twenty One Pilots/ Arcade Fire (did you know I like music?). I might have mentioned once or twice before in previous blog posts how much joy camp brings me, so it’s probably unnecessary to reiterate the fact.
DeleteI’ve always been aware of the overusage of the word “love” in the English language. I’ve known the difference between what I say I love, and what I actually love for some time now. So I can’t say that finally defining and classifying “love” in terms of “things” has changed my opinion on what love actually is. However, I should really work on limiting my use of the word in everyday conversations; I can’t help but feel like I’m devaluing its meaning whenever I use it to describe something as trivial as a pair of shoes.
32 different words in the Eskimo language to describe everything we love and yet when it comes to love most are at a loss for words. Of course it I were to look up “love” on dictionary.com it would result in some robotic answer that would realistically just be a waste of space because no one will listen to it. Love was once a sign of commitment, respect and adoration, somewhere along the way it turned into obsessive rough passion. It once meant forever whereas now love may only last minutes. I couldn’t have said it better myself…. “The word "love" gets thrown around so much on a day-to-day basis, it's a wonder the letters haven't broken off and gotten lost forever.” I never believed high school was a place for dating. I don’t believe it’s a place for love either regardless of the time span. 16, 17 and even 18 years haven’t seen much besides a school environment and maybe a rough home life. There’s more to see and discover than our four walls of comfort. In high school people act as if they rule the world, with unfiltered language and blunt opinions without a second thought. And for some reason it’s accepted, but what most don’t realize is that there’s an entire world outside, where that kind of behavior will leave a person chasing nothing. Therefore I don’t think any of us can truly decide anything. We don’t have the knowledge an adult has. Yeah sure some of us has seen far worse than any eighty year old but it’s the time after high school that changes you. I don’t have a definition of love, not yet anyway.
ReplyDeleteIt’s hard to pinpoint love to solid characteristics. We grew up in a world of fairytales forcing us to favor fantasy over reality nine out of ten times. Which is what I’m guessing made 50 shades of grey a hit in box office. But who knows maybe it was a good plot. Regardless, I fell for every stupid romantic comedy ever made with one exception. I disagree with the middle parts. And people will argue saying without it there’s no plot. And so I say, in real life I don’t want the middle part. If you love something don’t let it go, fight for it. Because our lives, no matter how spontaneous and dreamlike are not fairytales where everything is going to be okay. Nevertheless like I said I fell for it therefore I still want Jack & Rose or Noah & Allie to be forever thing. This brings me to my characteristics of love. It’s a cliché so stop reading now. Love to me should be uncomfortable as possible. People get so used to a way of life that they forget how to be happy, which eventually leads to a lot of fighting and maybe even divorce. But love should bring nervous tensions and butterflies that make sparks fly. Love should always be spontaneous, a never ending adventure with someone who you can ride every emotional rollercoaster and have endless conversations with. Love is a little like jumping off a cliff into a bottomless pit or exploring the mysterious of the Bermuda Triangle, we all wonder what’s there and if it’s real. The only way to find out is to jump.
What I love, I don’t know, who I love I don’t know, what I even like I couldn’t tell you. Bunje I must show you the poem “The outcomes of High School” so you can better understand why I say things the way I do. Meaningless is right. The word love is close to losing its meaning forever. What once represented a symbolic union ship now describes the way we feel about materialistic replaceable objects. I love certain shoes, post it notes, Ferris wheel rides, soft serve ice cream even, but these aren’t the things you meant when you asked what I loved. I guess I appreciate their usage and enjoy the taste more than I love these things. At this point in my life can I be allowed to say I don’t know what I love? Of course family, health all the reasonable are covered but what do I really love that I’m not forced into morally. I love when it rains and the sun shines. I love the quiet laughs everyone expresses when something in the present reminds them of their past. I enjoy reading and appreciate the authors who took the time to share their wonderful ability with the rest of the world. However I love the words the used to somehow relate to my life just perfectly without having ever met me. I love the feeling I get when I’m transported out of the heinous reality that has set in, and into somewhere I’m free to dream without fear. In addition there is a difference in loving someone or something and being in love. My previous characteristics described being in love, the running in the rain scenes and such. Anyone can be loved, anyone can love but it’s the “in” love with that gives love a bad reputation. Love is like a drug. It influences your thoughts, actions, and perceptions. In the end, whoever you may love, you care deeply about them whether they are your soul mate or not which makes you do crazy things for them.
ReplyDeleteAfter considering the classifications on things I love, enjoy and appreciate it’s easier to see where we all go wrong. We mix the three and use one word to describe something that’s appreciated or enjoyed rather than truly loved. Maybe it’s the lack of vocabulary or the use of the “urban” language in high school that has led us to the point where we do not differentiate between the three. Love is overused but not has lost its touch, yet, at least in my unbroken heart. It is the intangibles I will continue to love with each passing boy because they make me happy. And what is love without happiness.
Love, now I do not believe that is a word that simply has one definition. Love is a word that specific to each person as well as a word thats definition changes throughout time. My definition of love is not what it was when I was younger due to a changing outlook on life. To me when one loves something it just simply means it is something that they find great enjoyment in it is something that makes them happy and something they are willing to sacrifice other things for. Now to fit that definition I do not think something that a person has only been doing for a week qualifies, knowone is ready to sacrifice things just after one week whether it is a relationship or a sport one week is just not enough time to form a strong feeling of enjoyment in something. In saying so the word love according to my definition is used improperly quite often. People have a habit of throwing it around making it seemingly almost meaningless. I will admit that different levels of love exist for example, if man were to love his girlfriend and he was willing to sacrifice anything for their relationship such as family, grades, a career etc. that is a more serious level of love. But if one were to row but, they were only willing to sacrifice grades for the sport and not their family that does not be they do not love it they just means it does not rank number one in their list of things that they love. Even though there are different levels of love saying I loved ice cream and shoes would not fall into my definition (partially because I am not a large fan of ice cream) but I do not find consecutive enjoyment in those two items nor do I think anyone would be willing to sacrifice other things they love for them, or at least I would not. When one says they love such silly things, they do not really mean love or at least the way I define it. Yet I do it quite often. Usually when I tell another person I love them as horrible as this may sound it's just to not make things awkward when that is said the expected response is to say it back. Recently I have gotten into the bad habit though of saying “oh my goodness I love you” when someone does something for me that I appreciate or when they do something humorous or “I love your shoes” when I simply like them but I am searching for a word that has more emotion backing it. That definitely takes away the true authenticity if the word but not the meaning. Just because one does not know how to use a hammer properly and they use it to brush their hair does not mean it is a hairbrush, so just because one uses the word love wrong and uses where they should have said like does not make the two words synonyms it just means that person used it wrong. I use the word improperly everyday as well as most of civilization, but until we further our education that is not going to change. Often we use the word in a sentence when we do not know what other word to put their. We use love because we are looking for another word that has the same amount of emotion and would have the same effect but we just cannot find it.
ReplyDeleteNow as for what I love according to many defnition so many things. I love lang class I am willing to sacrifice all of my other classes for it and I find enjoyment in it. I love stage crew, I am willing to sacrifice so much for that! I can not even tell you how many times last year I did not get home until 8 multiple nights in a week but I did not care that I was sacrificing other activities or grades or time with certain people because stage crew brings me a ton of enjoyment and makes me super happy.
I love my church and the kids I teach there. Every week I teach two classes on Sunday about 15 2 and 3rd graders and then a class of usually 12 preschoolers. They are adorable and I will sacrifice sleepovers Saturdays nights, time to sleep in, trips, and more just to see my cute kids faces in the morning they bring me so much joy I truly love them. The best is after missing a week usually hearing “we missed you Miss Kiley”. I love a lot of things, not all on the same level but a lot. These though are the ones that popped into my mind first so in the stage of life I am in now the things listed I would say rank pretty highly on things I love.
DeleteLast Monday night I came home drained from school and, like every other day, I passed out on my couch. I don’t remember my dreams often but when I do they are extremely vivid and I always seem to learn some kind of life lesson. From what I can remember it started as I was on my way home from a week long school trip and I love to travel so I didn’t exactly want to come home. As soon as I entered my house I knew something was wrong. I saw my dad crying on the couch absolutely devastated and my dad NEVER cries. I tried to piece together his words but they were way too scattered to form comprehensible sentences. When he could speak he told me the news. My mom had died. Without any hesitation I went on a rampage. I broke furniture, threw her books and violently ripped all her memories down from the walls. My mom was gone she became a picture in a frame. My thoughts were rampant, “I never said goodbye. I didn’t even want to come home, how dare I think that way? How can I live with myself? How can I live without my best friend?” I woke up out of breath.
ReplyDeleteThe thought of my mom dying made me breathless. That is my definition of love, when the thought of living without someone leaves you breathless and afraid, when you fight and makeup because you know in the long run that person means too much to you to dwell on that argument, and when their life is clearly more valuable to you than your own. For me there is no question that I love God, my family and my best friends. I know that I would sacrifice close to anything for them.
With that said my definition of love is pretty strong and, in my dictionary, probably shouldn’t be used loosely. However, I am a huge culprit, along with many others, when it comes to overusing the word “love.” If it’s a great song, “I love this song!” If I actually find pants that fit, “I love these jeans!” If I see Chris Hemsworth on tv, “Omg, guys, I love him.” But Americans are not to be blamed. We use “love” for lack of a better word. I blame the English dictionary for being crap. The Greek language contains six words for love, all of which have different meanings. Eros is used for sexual passion, philia describes deep passion, ludus defines playful love, agape is a love for everyone, pragma is a long standing love, and finally philautia means self-love. Those words cover every base leaving no confusion for the intent of its user. To demonstrate, I could say I eros chocolate. Nevertheless, I guess this all means I have to be more careful when I choose my words. In this language we are limited which means that there is a huge difference between love and a strong liking towards something. If we overuse love it loses its meaning leaving our words empty.
We often use the word “love” as a substitute for “really like”. “I love your shoes!” instead of “I really like your shoes!”. In the simplest form, love is an attraction towards something, usually a living being. Love is due to attraction and attachment to someone. One cannot be attracted to inanimate things unless if he/she is suffering from paraphilia or is just excessively obsessed over the thing. For example, Kevin O’Leary is in “love” with his money. He once exclaimed on Shark Tank, “I'm not trying to make friends, I'm trying to make money”.
ReplyDeleteOne can only like something at varying degrees. People, including Langers, often say that love is when he/she feels a warm feeling in the heart or, to quote Lucie, “ [Love] is laughing and crying at the same time”. That warm or comfortable feeling one feels is due to high levels of Dopamine, Norepinephrine, Serotonin, Oxytocin, and Vasopressin (I know, I am a science nerd. Sometimes it's a curse). An increase in all those things indicate that you feel attracted towards the person and causes your heart rate to increase. Those who say love is bad can go to hell because, actually, an increase in those things also makes your immune system stronger and makes you less susceptible to many diseases.
Love has various levels. I love my aunts and uncles on level three, friends and cousins on level five, parents on level seven, and grandparents on level eight (to quote Alfonso, “on a scale of one to ten for those that enjoy life pestering people on technicalities”). The reason most of us love our parents dearly is because we have spent so much time with them, and the attachment has gotten stronger since the birth. Oxytocin, one of those big words I mentioned before, is present during childbirth and in breast milk. It grows the bond between the mother and the child. This is why kids almost always are closer to mom than dad. Time, Ceteris Paribus, has a direct relationship with the amount of attachment one feels towards the other person. The child spends more time with the mom so he/she feels closer to her than to dad. Similarly, the longer we spend time with our friends and the more we get to know each other, the more we love them.
Classifying who I love into levels does not change the meaning of love for me, but, instead, it changes the view on how much I actually love them and to what extent. It also makes me realize how much I love someone whom I previously didn’t think about. If it was up to me, I would give different names to every level of love making it much more easier for people to understand the kind of love being mentioned and decrease the awkwardness sometimes when the L bomb drops.
Personally, it annoys me when I hear some people say how much they love a certain thing, or even a person. People overuse the word "love" so much that, to me, it starts to lose its meaning. I truly do become a little agitated when people keep saying things like "I love your hair" or "I love your shoes so much OMG!" Yes. I am targeting mostly girls at this moment because girls are usually the ones who keep overusing the word "love." The reason why it is annoying to me because I know that they do not mean it. Yeah, I understand that they say "love" to over-exaggerate what they like, but to me, there are lies laying behind that word if it is used in such, so to say, petty circumstances. Because of how much people, #girls, use the word "love" in many unnecessary situations, I stay away from using it myself to describe something that I enjoy. I stay away from it because there is not one thing that I have such strong emotions towards that I need to use it. And that's it. My definition of "love" is holding strong emotions towards something or someone. It is being truly, 100%, from the bottom of the heart drawn to. Let it be a person, a hobby, an object, a sport or a subject, it does not matter. If one becomes excited in a bizarre way and begins acting crazy over that certain thing (or a person), then he is "in love" with that thing (or a person).
ReplyDeletePersonally, I am not able to recall more than two things that I enjoy and LIKE, but do not describe my attraction towards those things as "love." What I enjoy is rowing for crew and solving math problems. Those are the only things that come to mind that could be closest to "love." Even though both activities become tedious at some points, overall I still enjoy them. And though this may sound hypocritical, I have, as well, said that "I love crew" and "I love math." I have said those in my lifetime, but, from what I can remember, I have said those things in such manners with which I mocked other people who overuse the word "love" and make myself sound sarcastic, and maybe even mean. Even though I really do enjoy rowing and solving equations, I still rather say "like" instead of "love," but that is my personal decision. And again, I do this because I do not want to end up lying to myself and others because "love" should be eternal, even if it is directed towards an object. If you love something, you just like it, but forever.
I don't really throw the word love out there to much. I appreciate the comfort of those around me and of those in my life. Love is seen as an emotion or a strong affectionate feeling that you have towards something or someone. Something that I love is food :’). I’m arranging my marriage with pizza sometime soon and all are welcomed ! Someone that’s “in love” with a person feels like that person is irreplaceable. Let's compare this to my love of pizza. Let's say I only order pizza from Domino's and i haven’t ordered from any other pizza store in months. Then two months later I try a slice of pizza from Pizza Hut. I would notice the difference and want my Dominos pizza back. No other pizza store can replace the ingredients that Domino's puts in their pizza. It's irreplaceable because it's the ingredients that they used. I don’t know if that made any sense but if you're “in love” you’d feel like your partner is irreplaceable. I put in love in quotations because I feel as if there’s a difference between saying “I love you” and “I'm in love with you”. I’m so in love with Domino's pizza I don’t know what I would do without it <3. It's trouble breaking down the pizza considering I’m lactose but it's all worth it :)!
ReplyDeleteThere’s maybe one more thing I love and that’ll have to be sports. I love watching and playing sports. It’s just a hobby that I’ve been active in for many years now, got to bless up everyday for being fortunate to play in these sports. “Rise Up, Bless Up, Wise Up” -DJ Khaled.
Lastly I’m in love with my very first game ball <3. On September 26, 2015 ‘ I remember it like it was yesterday. I had the best game of my high school career, leading the team in tackles and other stats. After we took the W coach was making his speech whilst holding the game ball. The whole time he was making eye contact with me. Then he said game ball goes to Larry Mensah. I’ve never been so gassed in my life. I took this ball with me everywhere, even to bed. I named her Abert after one of my jewish daughters :)! A week after receiving this ball I ordered a glass case and that is where Abert stays confined. I appreciate all positive things in life Bless Up.
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ReplyDeleteLove, or whatever language you interpret and say it in. Love is an interesting thing to talk about, we all say we love things or someone but do we truly mean it. Nobody knows except for the person who says it. For me to love something or someone; it makes you feel happy and you don’t forget about it. You always remember how that thing or person made you feel.
ReplyDeleteI truly love only a few things. I love my family of course, even if they drive me nuts with all their antics and shenanigans. I will always love them, because they’ve supported me and worked so hard to provide for me and guided me to who I am today. Even if my dad and I get into an argument and I still dwell on it for a few hours or days, I will still love him because he’s my father and he’s done so much for me and I don’t want him to be mad or upset for a while. If you care about a person’s well being, you show love for them.
I may seem young to say this from other people’s point of views but, I love my girlfriend Lexi. Yeah yeah yeah I’m only sixteen I don’t know what true love really is. But for me I truly love her. We’ve been dating more than a year now and I definitely have learned very much about her. She can always hold up a conversation, and if you know me I like to talk. She can always tell me how she feels even if I have to get it out of her, because I care about her well being. Lexi supports me in what I do and just wants me to be happy just as I do for her. And if there is some disagreement or misunderstanding, we always just talk it out and be honest than having to yell. She makes me very happy and i’m grateful that I met her. She’s helped me with my insecurities and is one of my main support systems besides family and friends. and that’s why I love her not just as my girlfriend, but just as a friend too.
I love that I’m multicultural. The name that I’ve given for my mutt breed is a Blasiarican. and yes that is the correct spelling. So I am Puerto Rican, African-American, Laotian, and Thai. Laotian and Thai are the two asian groups I am. I love being multiracial for the fact that I can experience so many cultures and see the beauty in all of them. And there’s just so many food options. I can go from paella(spanish seafood dish) to sushi and sashimi. And I learn so much about my culture every single day and it’s exciting to learn.
I’ve always felt this way about love. Loving is a positive emotion to whatever makes you happy and scream with joy. I may love something else in the future, but for now those three things are what I truly love.
Love. It’s a difficult thing for such a negative person like myself to talk or write about but I guess I’ll try my best. Love is the feeling of invincibility and vulnerability at the same time. When I love something, for example swimming; doing that makes me feel relaxed and euphoric, I’ll be corny and say it makes me feel complete and gives me a sense of confidence in myself, whether I’m good at it or not. When I love someone, seeing them and being with them makes me feel pretty similar to when I love someone. I feel relaxed and comfortable and genuinely happy and almost giddy.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I think that the word love gets thrown around a lot but then once I think about it more I realize that a person needs as much love in their life as they can get, even if it is for a pair of shoes or those really cute 7 for $27 underwear from Victoria Secret. Life can be filled with so much pain and loving the little things like clothes and shoes can make it all a little easier. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve fallen in love with a new pair of shoes and said it out loud. But I guess I’ll get into the deep emotional stuff now. As I said before I love swimming. It’s a part- at least I believe it is- of my identity. I love watching people swim and how incredibly graceful it can be. Loving swim makes me feel vulnerable because I know that one day I’ll have to give it up and my life won’t be the same without it and I won’t be the same without it. Another thing that I love are my best friends. I have a small group of people that I trust and I wouldn’t trade those people for anything in the world. They make my days brighter and better in every way possible, from there corny jokes about cows and ground beef, and the facts that I can tell them anything and they’ll never judge me or look at me differently. There are things in life that at one point I loved and no longer do but not loving those things anymore won’t change what the meaning of love is to me.
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ReplyDeleteI define love as a strong and passionate liking to a thing or person who gets stuck in your memory for a while. The word, love, gets used loosely a lot by people these days. People would say, “Man, I love this fruit.” or “I love that movie.” As more people use the word “love”, it starts to lose its meaning. A person would say “I love these shoes” one day. In the next day, that person would forget about it. In order for true love to appear, he or she must have a strong attraction to it and it should be stuck in their memory.
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of love, relationships and dating usually come to my mind. It does not have to include those things, but the media usually focus on it and I watched television a lot in my childhood. Characteristics like passion, caring, and attraction represents the word, love, a lot. In most movies and T.V. shows, couples usually represent love to viewers. During the movie and as the T.V. show progress, the audience gets to see the creation of the couple and how they would fall in love. For example, the play “Romeo and Juliet”. Readers get to read about the troubling conflict between the two families and how Romeo and Juliet fall for each other like love at first sight. Romeo would even sneak out late at night just to see Juliet. If you read the book, the ending clearly represents Romeo and Juliet’s true love for each other and that (Spoilers) both were willing to die for each other. Both committed suicide in order to join the other in heaven. Their deaths were foolish, but you can not blame them because they were in their teen years and their emotions took control over their judgement. I talk about “Romeo and Juliet” because love plays a significant role in this play.
I rarely say that word, love. The reason why because only a couple of things can truly affect me and cause me to love them. One of them being my friends. I learn a lot from them and they helped me out with my problems. Also, they are the only people that I feel comfortable to hang around and can show my true self. When I am in a trouble situation, they got my back and vice versa. I love them. Without my friends, I would not be who I am today. That is how greatly they impacted and affected me. Another thing I love, listening to music. Music can fit anyone and can help soothes your mood. Music contains a bunch of styles that match anyone’s description. I listen to music every day, but I change my genre throughout the day. For example, I usually listen to rap in the morning. Later on, I would listen to Pop punk or Disco songs. Music helps me out during troubling times and helps me relax. It helps me stay focus and motivated to get the work done. I love it.
For the last question, it does not change my perspective of love and I still stand by it. I love the things I mention above because I would never get bored by them and I have a strong attraction towards those two things. Love can be defined in many ways. To find the real definition, one must search and find true love. Sorry if this answer is cheesy, but I do not like typing about love.
What Is love?
ReplyDeleteLove is when you can't fall asleep because your reality is finally better than your dreams. Love is indescribable. I mean to be completely honest I don't know if I'm even describing it in the way you want me to, its hard.There is no fathoming the power of love, it is so strong. People can never tell what love feels like because most likely that person has never experienced true love. Who really knows If they have, I want to believe it and I do. Love is something that one person really doesn't experience unless it is true. A lot of people think that most things in their life are true but the reality is that there not. When you fall in love it is so hard to fall out and if you can you have fallen. To me, love is an incredible feeling you get, it's a lot of feelings all combined to make this knot in your stomach.When every little thing reminds you of your lover. Your out with your friends eating and you chuckle a little bit because the last time you were there you guys made fun of the waiter. You're in the car alone listening to a song that doesn't really sound the same because you guys aren't singing it together.When just them being away for an hour puts a little ache in your heart because your happy when they are there with you not because your obsessed. happiness is a big key in life and sharing it with someone you love is a feeling you don't want to leave.Love is Caring for on another as much as you care about your dog or more which is hard, I understand Bunje. Being faithful to one another so that you don't ever question their love. To accept them for who they really are. Love can be confused with infatuation when you think you love somebody but the love isn't really there. Love is cherishing each others feeling and words it may be self-explanatory to you but others may not understand.
What do I love?
I love my dog, a lot. My immediate family, I say immediate because some of my other family do not fit the criteria to be loved by me. My boyfriend, I love and yes he does fit the criteria, I may be wrong but right now I think its true, and nothing from the outside can tell me otherwise because what do they know?I love the teachers who made impacts on my life because they helped me believe. I love my couple close sister friends. Yes, I do love shoes, heels, wedges, uggs, flats, sandals, boots, Sperry's, vans, flip flops, and 100 more different types of shoes. I love chocolate, brownies, cake, with nuts I love food I can't help it. I love a whole lot of things.But that is a way different type of love I had described in the beginning. It's me saying I more than Liking those things and that is all.
Love? I thought we did a blog post on this already? Ah, never mind.
ReplyDeleteThis is actually good for me, my definition of love and my relationship with another person has been altered, just slightly.
My definition of love has two circumstances. The first one is in a relationship, the other one is within a family. I feel that these two “types” of love are actually separate from one another, but they are still love.
Love in a relationship is when you like that person so much, that you want to spend all of your time with them and getting to know them.
Familial love is rocky (as is the love in a relationship). Some people do not love their family. I can securely say that I love my family. This kind of love would be described as unconditional. Sure, you may not like some of the things your family members do, but you will always love them because they love you. With familial love, you tend to care for them endlessly.
Recently, I have been told by another human being, that they are in love with me. The first thing that popped in my mind was, why?
Then I questioned, does he really mean it?
The only way to know is to spend time with this special guy. It is a huge milestone to have your “first relationship” or “love”.
Sometimes I will say, “Omg, I LOVE these shoes!!” or “I love Half-Baked ice-cream!!”
These things are of little importance to me. And you are right, It’s a miracle that the word “love” has not faded off into the distance. People still love.
When I love someone (or something), I mean it. I love my friends, I love my family, my teachers, I love music, and no matter how much I say the opposite, I love this damn school.
I love to LOVE.
There is no reason behind my need to love. No matter what kind it is; whether it be tough love, familial, or the kind in a couple’s relationship. I will dish out love, because the world needs it.
Love is kindness. And caring. And wanting to be with someone so much, that your heart feels like it’s going to burst. Love is getting all clammy, with butterflies helplessly wanting to escape your stomach. It’s that feeling of needing to confess, but you are too shy and do not want to jeopardize your friendship. Love is also an extended friendship. Your parents, your siblings, and even your other half can be your best friends. It’s wanting to spend your every waking moment showing your affection to them. Even if it kills you, because maybe, they don’t even love you back. Maybe, they are too blind to notice.
There is no definitive way for me to say this, but I believe that another part of the definition of love was revealed to me. Before, I have only known familial love. I have never been loved by anyone other than someone who is in my immediate circle of family and friends. No one has ever been able to break down my walls; the walls that me and my family have spent so much time building over the past few years of my teenage life. My definition of love has not changed. It has been expanded. Broadened. And for this I am so grateful. I know I may not make the best choices on this journey of seeking love, but perhaps it will all be worth it.
The conquest of finding a relationship where another person enjoys your company just as much as you do.
What you love may change, but how you love and what love is to you, will never change.
*This blog was posted after it was emailed to bunje, bc there was a problem with publishing it... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯*