Love is one of those feelings that no one can explain. It's the most powerful, heart-wrenching feeling in the world for so many reasons, and yet the only answer people can give as to what it feels like is that "you just know you feel it when you feel it."
To feel love is to hug your parents, friends, and dog or to be sad to leave them and to hate to fight with them. But to fall in love or to be in love is so much more.
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Falling in love is scary. It comes on fast—all of a sudden you're free-falling into a bottomless pit of newfound emotions, and you're terrified, excited, nervous, and happy all at once. Falling in love is thrilling, electrifying, and horrible. You're hit with the realization that you want to be with this person for so many more reasons than to just say that you're with them. You begin to feel dependent in an independent way—like you've lost a part of you in that person, but at the same time you're complete without them because they've lost a part of themselves in you as well. And that first time that you stumble over those three little words to them, you lose your breath and think you may have just lost all of your chances until they say it back. And then you know that they feel the same, and it's an entirely new free-fall. Only this time, you're holding hands.
Being in love is even more terrifying than falling in love. It's getting sudden butterflies just thinking of your significant other and not being able to do anything but smile when you talk about them. It's starting more sentences than you'd like to admit with their name, and finding yourself bragging about them to everyone you meet.
Being in love is laughing at their corny jokes. Being in love is, well, corny. It's finishing each others sentences, holding hands on even the shortest walks, and borrowing his jacket when you don't wear your own because it would ruin your outfit and you swear you won't be cold.
Being in love is being so angry at your significant other that you just want to hug them. It's having the worst day of your life and wanting nothing more than to be alone, but alone in their arms. It's feeling their pain, even from a million miles away, and wanting to be able to give them your happiness and take on their pain.
Being in love is being one with that person. You feel what they feel, think what they think, and want to spend every moment with them. But you don't because you're in love and you know you don't really need to even though you really want to. It's dragging them out of bed to get that midnight snack you're craving and then being indecisive when you finally get to the store. It's waking them up when you have nightmares, but watching them sleep in the morning.
Being in love is losing all boundaries. It's ugly crying at 2 a.m. because your life is a mess and they're finally there to make you feel better, or making a fool of yourself in public just to hear them laugh. It's learning so much about your significant other that you learn more about yourself.
Being in love is endless. Selfless. Incredible.
Everyone says that being in love is reserved for older people and that you can't truly know love until you're old enough to be married. But being in love at just twenty years old is even more powerful because you've got the world ahead of you, and nothing can slow you down.
