If you're lucky enough, you'll meet someone who changes your life. This person will change you for the better. Not because they intend to, or they even aim to do so, but because they inspire you to do so. How does one unintentionally inspire you to become a a better person? They do it because you want to better yourself for them. You'll change your habits in a way to create a new and improved you. That's when you realize you're in love.
At my young age of nineteen, somehow I was granted the pleasure to fall in love with possibly the most amazing man on the planet. That's when I realized, love is a beautiful thing. Love is eternal. Love is a combination of all the positive adjectives in the world, that's the beauty of it. However, with all the beauty in love, there's the downsides of it. Love is not love without the hardships you endure during it. That's what many people forget when they think about love. Love is not always sunshine and rainbows, and if your love is comprised of sunshine and rainbows, it's not complete just yet.
So what is love really? Allow me to answer that for you.
Love is late night arguments where you say things you don't actually mean, but you're upset. Arguments are inevitable. If you love someone enough, you're going to endlessly fight about things in hope for change. With that being said, if your love is strong enough, things WILL change. Love is a partnership, you work on improving the little things to keep each other happy.
Love is making mistakes. There's always things that you will regret in a relationship. Whether it's something that shouldn't have been said, something done out of spite, or an even worse action than that, there's always something that you could change if given the chance. People are human and things happen. Being in love is a partnership, which is where forgiveness comes in. Love is accepting that things happen, and if it's worse losing your partner over.
Love is accepting their faults. No human is perfect, that is a known fact. With love comes accepting your partner for who they are. Even with the most amazing person, there will always be little things about them which can become annoying. These things can range from annoying little habits to tiny quirks about their personality. While they're minor, they will get under your skin. With love comes acceptance. If you struggle with doing this, consider this: your partner is doing the same thing with your faults. Unless it's an underlying issue that continues to grow and become a major problem, accept it and move on. Love is worth more than stressing the small things.
Love is tears. With passion, comes sadness. You will cry and you will scream. While this happens, your partner will be there to calm you down, even if you're upset over them (which most likely you are). With the sadness comes the forgiveness, love has that power.
Love is being upset when they're upset. While it's seen as 'passionate', your problems become their problems. It's a 'we' problem. They will hate who you hate, you will hate who they hate. When their day is bad, your day is bad. It's a shared sadness. While this may not be seen as 'bad', love is not always sunshine. Depression waves and plain 'bad days' can never be erased. Even when you're in love, they're still very real. How you deal with them says a whole lot about your relationship.
Love is admitting you're wrong. Sometimes you need to swallow your pride and move on. Arguments are never worth continuing once you know you're wrong, which is a tough thing to do. Your partner at this point probably has your best interest in mind, too. The best thing to do is stand up, say 'you're right', and allow them to happy dance around you. At the end of the day, allow your partner to have this one. You can't always be right. (@myself)
Love is wishing you could strangle your partner, but you won't. Not only because murder is illegal, but the moment they'll be gone, you'll miss them.
Love is wondering if it's worth it. Are the tears and arguments worth it? Which is when you realize, right away, that of course it is. You'll feel stupid for even considering for once that it might not be worth it. The good will always outweigh the downsides because at the end of the day, the good to bad ratio is far apart. Good always outweighing the bad.
At the end of the day, love is far from sunshine and rainbows. Love has hardships, along with the ups and downs. That's what makes love, love. You can never have a flawless relationship, a relationship becomes perfect when your partnership is strong enough to deal with the ups and downs and promise not to leave. That's what makes love such a wonderful thing.