Heart Tugs

I'll be the first to admit that I bawled during Cassie's breakup with Colton on live television. And as much as I wanted to know what happened, as much as I knew America was dying to discover how Colton could continue after such a declaration, I felt so sad that fifteen cameras followed him around during his most vulnerable moments.

Picture this: Your crush has somehow wormed their way into your heart so now you are just full-out in love with this person. Like move mountains, cross valleys, jump a fence in love. You are SO beyond excited to tell them how you feel! This is your future, your hopes, and dreams. Everything rolled up into one person. But they don't feel the same. And so naturally, you're crushed. Absolutely floored and vulnerable beyond belief at a circumstance you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. And sitting right in front of you, next to this person who is trying to make up for not loving you back quite enough, there are fifteen gazillion black cameras watching, calculating, catching your every move.

No wonder he jumped that fence.

A Certain Brand of Love

Unrequited love seems to be one of the most devastating forms of the powerful emotion, though who am I to talk. I've never been in love unless my dog or KJ Apa counts. But seeing the pain so vividly brought to life with the shaking of a man on the screen and a visceral reaction of running away and escaping the heartache is scary, to say the least. But I think any form of love, even the unrequited variety, though it can bear great heartbreak, also has a certain type of beauty within it. As someone who has never been in love, I think that it is still a beautiful thing to have a beating broken heart, though a beating heart in requited love would be even brighter.

A broken heart shows the vulnerability, the pure depths of emotion that human beings can endure. If one human can feel something so strongly for another human that they send away all other options and fight for that love even with the knowledge that the other person "might just not be that into you" (great line, Chris. Not harsh at all), then that shows just how powerful love can be. This type of love shows strength in the human heart. In human resolve.

In humanity.