With February almost behind us, I feel as though it's only natural to write an article based solely off of the sometimes unrequited love that occurs between two acquaintances (or strangers, to be honest). The heart-wrenching ups and downs, the desperate searching for any information that might make the two of you the perfect pair (what's the compatibility of a Leo and a Taurus?), and the complete hopelessness that comes with the realization that the possibility of it ever working out between the two of you is extremely slim. So, here to hopefully make some of you feel like you aren't the only ones losing your minds about someone who doesn't even know your name, are the stages of having a crush.

Stage 1: First Sight

"Hold up let me reenact what went dow--...good Lord have mercy on my soul..." Have you ever seen such a beautiful creation? Someone with such a perfect presence that it stops you dead in your tracks and all of the sudden it doesn't matter if you got a failing grade on your calculus test that day and that you cussed out your professor, because by the grace of God, this human exists and you have been blessed with their image.

Stage 2: Visual Warfare

You know you look like an absolute cretin staring at this innocent person. But, at this point, all of your dignity has been lost. You've already looked at their social media (or been extremely disappointed whenever they either don't have it or it's private), so staring at them really isn't make you more pathetic...right? I mean there's no way that they know that you've been staring at them for a solid ten minutes without blinking or have not been listening to anything that your friends have been saying for the past half hour because you can't help but to notice the adorable way their eyes crinkle or the way they eat soup right? RIGHT?!

Stage 3: Shameless Discussion

Your friends, at this point, probably know more about them than their friends do. All you can think about is how you can bring them up in a completely unrelated conversation or somehow lead the other person to bring them up so that way you can look all wide eyed and surprised whenever they mention that they noticed you guys made eye contact last Thursday afternoon whenever they caught you gawking at them. You talk about them like you guys are a thing, and whenever someone new to the group asks if you guys are dating your only answer is "...well not yet..." Also, by this point, you've already repeated their last name with your first name just to see how it sounds. Update: it sounds PERFECT.

Stage 4: Doubting Your Loyalty

Now, here's the worst part. At this point in time, you've probably found out way too much about them. You've got all your friends on recon, and Allison in Bio found out that they've been talking to someone or that they do hardcore drugs on the weekends to "take the edge off". UGH. Are you serious?! But they were so incredible. The sting of having to remove yourself from something you wanted so badly is not one that can be alleviated by any old Taylor Swift song or Ben & Jerry's pint. They could've been the one, but they had to go and ruin it. It's no longer a good time staring at them or trying to pass them on the way to class, it's now just a reminder of something that was torn right out from under you. You put so much stock in this person; how could you recover from such a blow?

Stage 5: Accepting the Reality

So, they weren't everything you thought they would be. To you, they were a world of possibilities that you couldn't wait to experience for yourself. You thought that maybe if you begged the universe enough, you'd get what you wanted from them. They'd see you as the same perfect being as you saw them, they'd go out of their way to notice the cute way your nose crinkles or the way you laugh. But, they didn't. They aren't perfect and neither are you, and that's okay. I'm not going to tell you that they couldn't be with you because you were meant for someone else (because this is supposed to be real, not cliche), but hey, maybe it's a blessing in disguise. I mean, you did notice that they kind of smack their lips when they eat or that they have a tendency to not hold the door for people despite the other person clearly needing a chivalrous hand.

Crushing on someone is no easy task, and can sometimes feel like an out of body experience. Our need to connect with someone who we find endlessly attractive is actually pretty normal, but usually, we're left with the remnants of something that would've never worked. Although this can create major 'You Belong With Me' vibes, it's still fun to look back on just how crazy you acted over someone who, in retrospect, probably had the personality of an unsalted peanut. If anything, it distracts you from the grueling everyday tasks that can become routine, and maybe give you something to look forward to outside of eating an edible meal (@College).