Love: the emotion of strong affection and personal attachment.

Happy V-Day everybody; I love ya. Today I've been thinking about love. Remember the first time you said I love you or had it said to you? Mine was in a car in grade 11. I was just a child. The boy turned to me and said "Kelsey, I love you." He gazed into my eyes waiting for me to equally declare my love and in return all I said back was:

"Thanks."

Let me just say, I am terrified of that sentence. I used to whine that I had a curse on me because every time I dated someone they'd throw that three-word phrase my way when I least expected it and we'd then either: a) break up, 2) kiss awkwardly because I wouldn't say anything back and thought maybe if I kissed him he wouldn't notice I hadn't said it yet, or f) sit in silence while I did everything in my power not to make eye contact with him. I'm afraid of admitting love but at the same time I just can't seem to get enough of the idea of love and knowing that there's someone out there who is in love or potentially in love with me; Hence why I just keep on dating. Everything is usually great with a guy but as soon as I see looooove form on those lips I run for the hills. Can't we all just like each other?  I don't want to sound heartless, there has been an exception here and there, I'm just a little scared of it. One time though, I did actually want to hear it. It was with this boy that I dated for a really long time, almost 2 years in fact. He was the best boyfriend a girl could have. He sang me songs on his guitar, he brought me flowers all the time, he called me in the morning so that "you're beautiful" would be the first thing I heard that day. He never gave up on the surprises and gifts and little showings of affection. He was different than the rest, and mostly because he did that without ever saying he loved me for 7 months. I think he thought it was obvious he did but I started to doubt. The sentence I hated the most was all I wanted to hear and all I could think was: I have been with this kid seven months  and he can't just spit it out? Does he even like me? Was he doing this whole thing just because he was a nice guy? Let me just say the lack of "I love you" was starting to get to my head. Finally I made my serious face, looked him straight in the eyes, and said: "You love me, right?" He looked at me like I just asked him if the sky was blue and simply replied: "Well of course. Why the heck do you think I do all of this stuff for you?"

That day I realized that when you love someone, you do things for them. When you love someone, you just kind of know that you love them and they should know in return (though it is nice to hear every once and a while). And when you really love someone, there shouldn't be a fear of loving them. All the other past boys were just throwing that sentence out because they thought thats all they needed and that I would be a typical girl and ecstatic. Wrong. They didn't make an effort to sing me a song or write me a letter, they thought I love you was good enough. But the thing is, it's just a sentence unless it's followed by some action. I don't want to sound cheesy, though it does go with this holiday, but can we all just show the people we love how much we love them today? Because I think that is a whole lot better than a measly few words.

Oh, and P.S. here's a song for all you lovers, and here's a song for all you depressed non-lovers.