About Love

I am head over heels in love and now I know why. The reason was there all along, it has been for years, but somehow I didn’t appreciate it for what it was until now. For as long as remember, I have been a closeted hopeless romantic. I guess the reason I’ve never felt anxious about what I’m going to do with my life after school is because I have always seen a job as second to what I am really meant to do in life; love someone and be with them until I die. It sounds a little cliché, a little too of the idealized prince charming sort of situation, but only if you think solely about romantic love. What I have come to realize however is that true romances aren’t based on romantic love, their foundations are of platonic love. Platonic love is underrated. There are so many people in our lives we feel platonic love for, but somehow it becomes taboo to express it too often, as if it is a sign of weakness to tell someone you love them platonically except for on certain special occasions. But in reality, platonic love is a ground-shaking, soul-altering phenomenon of the purest love imaginable. Perhaps the fact that it is hidden most of the time gives it the ability to bring tears to the eyes of friends and family when we verbally express our platonic love. The best relationships are founded on platonic love. Before I started dating my boyfriend, we were friends. And though it has taken a while for us to say those three words, “I love you,” I realized that I have loved him for years. And that love hasn’t changed. Platonic love doesn’t give way to romantic love; it just enhances it even more. Sometimes it amazes that one person can feel so many types of love at once without their heart bursting with sheer bliss. It makes me wonder, what would this world be like if everyone was more open about loving each other in all ways possible? Tomorrow I am going to tell someone I love them, really love them. I don’t know yet who it will be. But when I tell them, it’s not for an occasion, not for a reason. Love needs no reason, it is reason enough.