Growing up, I thought that love was merely a big show of affection. Something that was easily achieved, handed out like candy hearts and cards on Valentine’s day. I had the common belief that love was a feeling, that loving someone meant that I felt a certain way about them. I believed that you could fall in love just like you could trip on a stick. You commonly hear people say, “I fell for him/her so hard, I didn’t even mean for it to happen” whether it be in real-life or a sappy Nicholas Sparks movie. Yet, me as an 18-year-old now, says baloney. I recognize this is the common misconception of love growing among people my age, but this is not what I believe love to be by any means. You may think, “she is only 18, she doesn’t know what she is talking about” and that is okay. I realize that I am young, I don’t have everything together or figured out wholly and completely. These are merely my own thoughts and my own conceptions of what I believe love should be, and is.

In my own observations, this common misconception of love is predominantly taking over my generation. In fact, I have met old and young alike with these skewed ideas of love. To think that love is only a feeling and nothing beyond that baffles me. If love was only based on a feeling someone gives you, no healthy relationship would last in my opinion. Affection is a fleeting feeling, but love is forever if you continually make the choice to love. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, it says that “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” If love is truly patient and kind, then it is a choice to make these decisions to act this way. Love is an action; it is a choice to be patient with someone, it is a choice to show kindness in the most heated of moments. A person may influence your choices to love them, but it always comes down to the fact that it is a choice, not a feeling. You could say “I love you” all day but it is merely only words until you put these thoughts into actions by continually doing what is best for that special person. I believe that there is no such thing as “falling in love” unless you are the one who continually makes the choice to take the leap.