As teenagers, it is natural for us to start thinking about love, whether it be on the physical level, or an emotional level. When we were little, we were all convinced that all love stories were going to be our love stories. Epic, romantic, exciting, the lived-happily-ever-after kind of fairytale love story.

It’s interesting when I think about true love, and if it really exists. When I was little all I could think about was “wow that’s so romantic I wish that would happen to me!”. But after a while, reality started settling into my adolescent mind, and I started to hate the idea of a fairy tale, because I was convinced that they were all fake and would never happen. That is - until I witnessed the love story of my grandmother. My grandmother became a widow in her 60s - no longer “young and beautiful”, as people would say. But she met someone, who also became widowed in his old age. I’m not certain how they met, but one thing I know for sure is that they loved each other, and they knew it. It’s amazing how love finds people - even when people are old and widowed, they can still somehow find their way to each other. This could prove to be an example of how true love does exist.

But if true love really exists, why are there so many couples out there, who thought they were the “one”s and their love would last forever, then ended in heartbreak? Is true love just an illusion?

I guess it all depends on the perspective. What you define as true love. Do you define true love as the love people have for each other when they would do anything for each other, be there for each other at all times, but it’s not necessarily forever? Or do you define true love as - well, forever, basically, even if the people in that relationship only care about themselves, blinded by the illusion of lust as love? Or must it be a fairytale love story, with its climax and its happy ending and the Prince saving the Princess from an ugly fate?

Although I still find enjoyment from watching romantic movies and reading love stories, I have a strong aversion against the notion behind these stories. The reason being that these stories always make it seem like there is only one boy or only one girl in the entire universe, and there aren’t other options around… This just doesn’t happen in real life. It would be nice if it did, of course, but in real life, the boy or girl you like has so many other options than you, and you never know if he will like you back or that someone out of all these other people is going to catch their eye. As a result you end up adoring a situation that is just probably never going to happen, and your heart breaks as you curse the world for not handing you what you want. (Yeah, I know I sound cheesy. Sorry, can’t help it, I myself am going through this right now…)

In conclusion, I can’t really answer if true love really exists or not. It all depends on the perspective and opinion of yourself. It’s not that I hate the idea of love, I just don’t think people should be too in love with the idea of love, or you could mistake infatuation for love and fall into unnecessary trouble. I guess what I’m saying is to be careful with love. It’s not a thing that comes easy, and it very often makes us lose our sense of self. It’s easy to get carried away with feelings that may seem like love, but is really just lust in disguise. Not to mention the way our brains just can’t seem to shut up about the person we like. Don’t rush into love, as Emily Ferrell once said, “before you fall in love, make sure there is someone to catch you”.