I used to think I knew what love was. But recently I realized that love is nothing like what I thought. Merriam Webster's dictionary defines love as "a feeling of strong or constant affection for a person." Given this definition, I have to say that I disagree, because I grew up in a time that people overuse the word love, and misuse the word love to gain things that they want.

Growing up I was taught that love was something that was shared between family members. Love was warm, and cozy, but it was also unyielding and never went away. As I grew older though, I learned that love has to be made. It is a way of connecting with a person and building trust. It can be shared between two people, and it can go away much quicker than it was made. Love is the reason that hearts beat, but it is also the reason that it breaks.

Love is capable of absolutely destroying a person from the inside. It is a feeling that can be felt so deeply it actually has the power to change people for either the better or the worse. This ability of love is the reason it can be misused and abused. People now, use the perception of love to trick others into doing things for them for a personal gain. The misuse and abuse of the word love has no doubt contributed to the hook up culture that has been created by the current generation of teens.

This hook up culture is all fine and dandy for some, but for most of the world, there is always a want for real love. No, I'm not talking about the kind of love that you see in the movies, where the guy and the girl are just 100% head over heels in love and they grow up and get married. Actually, throughout my years I have been convinced that that kind of love does not exist. Instead I'm talking about a friendly love. Something that will help you become a better person, make you realize your faults and help you grow. Unfortunately, there are not many with the same views in college.

Until the perception of love can be unified, I don't think that there will ever be a true definition for the word love. Instead, we must just live with the idea to go with the flow and ensue what we want to.