Love is a thing that has an entanglement of good properties, yet it can also result in a bad experience if abused or lost. Love can be a connection with a friend, a feeling in a romantic way, or something that is felt for one’s kin or family. When relating respect and love, do these two terms coincide?

It seems that those respected by another aren’t necessarily always people that they love, but it is more a love for what that person who you look up to has done and the reasons that particular person respects them for the attributes they are known for. One can also respect someone and love them for that reason only. I find that I tend to respect people for accomplishments they have made and kindnesses/acts they have shown towards me or others, but I also love them for who they are. For me, it acts as a gray area when connecting love and respect. Perpetuating one can definitely allow the other to grow. Sometimes people’s actions cause me to lose respect for them, but I still love them. There are some instances where people deserve neither love nor respect because they don't know, nor understand how to give it. I try to not spend too much time around those individuals; they are energy thieves. The majority of people in my life deserve both love and respect.

How many other people struggle with trying to place whether they respect or love a person? Many people tend to not categorize other people into boxes, but it’s different with love and respect since the feelings and the actions they show towards one can translate into how they are treated in return; therefore expressing whether one is loved, respected, hated, or even not given a care about. People generally do not like to be treated disrespectfully as it causes those same emotions to be directed back to the person that began the disrespect. The people who are perceived to be popular are usually depicted as being disrespectful to those who they consider are beneath them; often times a person acts that way because they want to be treated with respect. This has never made sense to me. A person will emulate the same feelings and project them onto someone else, feelings that they themselves don’t want to feel or see.

The feelings involved with love and respect can create a vicious cycle with different types of individuals. There are those that pretend to like others in their face and get a good reputation from others, but behind their backs or out of sight state to themselves or out loud how much they despise that person. There are those that state in another’s face how much they hate them and attempt to gain popularity from that alone. Then there are those that act in between the two spectrums and show their hate, love or respect in different manners. How can the varying levels of love and respect create so many different types of people and behaviors? It all goes back to how one treats another and the effects associated by the way they are treated.

Children are vulnerable when it comes to love and respect, especially younger children since they often imitate how their parents, and everyone else within their surrounding bubble, treat them. Other factors, such as the child’s school and social activities, are where the process of how one treats others begins, and this can be good for the child or can create insecurities for them. Love and respect should be shown by all, whether separately or together; the lack of these things makes for those without emotions or always having feelings of hate or other bad feelings or insecurities. Just a simple motion of trying to show love and respect for another truthfully can make someone’s day. We should strive harder in today's world to promote love and respect so it can be promulgated and emulated!