I Still Believe in Love

Get this: Alex is crazy enough to believe in love.

Like many people perhaps, lately I've been provoked to ponder over the question of whether true love actually exists. It didn't take me long to realize that I think it does, but how can I define it? How does it happen? Can it happen more than once? How do some people live their whole lives without their so-called true love if everyone has a soulmate? It's so easy to be cynical about love and relationships because the majority of the time they aren't working out for us. It seems like we work so hard to find love or, what's even more confusing, to keep it.


Here are two things that got me thinking about this whole love thing.

1. I just saw The Wackness last night. Without giving too much away, it was basically about this kid that just graduated high school who's kind of struggling to see either the "wackness" in life or the "the dopeness" (wackness being bad and dopeness good). Anyway, it was one of those movies that was kind of cynical about love. Then it occured to me that so many people let heartbreak taint their perception of love.

2. The other day we got a response to our post titled, "If someone's stuck in your head, are they really supposed to be there?" and not your normal anonymous said...
does love even exist anymore? i always felt that you only get one love in your life the rest you feel are love but when you meet love face to face you know and thats yur one true love i personally lost my love this is a creul creul world how can a person lose their love how can there be50 year old people single that will never have children because there is no love no one for them when even eharmony doesnt work does love exist? is there any hope?


So here's what I've been thinking...

1. Love is real.
It's kind of hard denying that love is real if you've ever experienced it. The fact of the matter is that it's pretty difficult to find somebody that you really, truly like in the first place enough to want to be around them all the time. Then you find somebody that gets you like no one else has ever gotten you. They laugh at your jokes and don't think you're weird when you say something random. They make you feel more like you than you ever thought you could be. They fill a hole that you never knew was empty. You feel your best when you're around them, and they make you happy to just be alive. Love is a complete and utter miracle. If you ever experience you should consider yourself severely blessed, even if it just kills you in the end. All good things in life come with some element of risk. To enjoy the good you have to be willing to endure the bad, and that's why it sucks, but does anyone really regret ever being in love? You don't because you know that love made your life fuller than it had ever been before, and even if you're going through hell trying to get over it, it was all worth it.

2. I don't believe that we have only one soulmate.
Something that "not your normal anonymous" referred to was the fact that there are people that grow old and die alone basically. Something that has disturbed me for awhile was the thought of my two grandmothers. My grandma on my dad's side was married to my grandpa and was completely in love, and he died before I was born, but she never got remarried. My other grandma got divorced like 30 years ago and has never even dated anyone else as far as I know. So did God only give them one love to have for their entire life? Then what about people that fall in love and get married then get divorced and fall in love with someone else? There are plenty of people who claim to have fallen in love multiple times, so if we have one true love how does that happen? Now I'm probably not an expert on this because I've only been in love one time, but I've come to the conclusion that we can experience true love more than once.
I think that it's a tremendous happenstance to meet someone that you have perfect chemistry with, but just because it doesn't happen a lot doesn't mean that it can't just happen ever once in a blue moon. It's kind of like how you can have different best friends in life. You have one when you're a little kid and then you move away and make a new one or you go away to school, it's probably a little easier to find a best friend because your chemistry doesn't have to be perfect just pretty good, but that only means that it's only a little harder to find someone that you can love. And of course a lot of people probably rolled their eyes when I said that because I make it sound so easy, but think of all the different people you've liked (as in like like) throughout your life. You've been attracted to different kinds of physical appearances, and you've found different kinds of senses of humor amusing, and so on. Just because one thing works doesn't mean it's the only thing that will.

3. Love is still very rare so when you find it DON'T GIVE UP ON IT!
A lot of people stumble upon love at in inoportune moment in their life or at a time when they least expect it so they trivialize it and think, oh it's not right because the time isn't right, but life doesn't work around your plans! It happens when it happens, and you just have to go with it! Just like when you wanted this one class and you didn't get it and you ended up in another class that you totally loved. Or think about when you went for somebody that you thought was perfect for you and they turned out to be less than you expected. My dad always says, "If you want to make God laugh just tell him your plans," and that's so right! Life rarely turns out the way you expected it too, but it doesn't mean that you missed anything. What completely blows my mind is when two people are in love and one of them backs out. Everyone has a different excuse: they're too young to get serious, they want to date around, be free, whatever. Um hello that's like somebody showing up to your door with a pile of cash, a hybrid sportscar and free college education and turning it down because you were expecting the Easter Bunny with a basket full of peeps and plastic eggs filled with candy. That just means you've got your priorities all wrong.

SO THAT'S WHAT I THINK ABOUT LOVE RIGHT NOW...WHAT DO YOU THINK????

P.S. My faith in guys' ability to be non-passive has finally been restored. I know a guy that's actually willing to work to get his girlfriend back. It's not just in movies! There are guys that know that a great girl is hard to find and that who's willing to do whatever it takes to keep them in their lives. I am so impressed and relieved. Good luck MC! +]