Love

The speaker reflects on the concept of love, questioning its meaning and sharing personal experiences. They ponder if love is the initial infatuation, but conclude that love is the ongoing effort and choice to be with someone, supporting each other through hard times. Love is described as a connection that transcends time and space, marked by moments of intense emotion and the willingness to forgive. Love, to the speaker, is defined by the effort, time, and space shared with another person. What is love? I've asked myself this question who knows how many times. Is love that moment that I shared when I thought I had no one in the world? I made two friends for the first time my entire life. Is it the conversations I have with my mom when I don't know what I'm going to do and she's all I can turn to? Is it every time I've tried to reach out to my dad? Was it when I was young when I didn't know any better when I thought that reaching out to you would have made it all easier and for a while it did? For three years I felt like no one had ever made me feel before, like everything was going to be okay. Or was it when I met you and I couldn't think of anything else? When I completely questioned all of my ideas about myself and what I want and what I need? When I thought that I found someone that I'm willing to give everything that I had already? Is that love? I don't think so. I think that's the start of love, that's falling in love. And you can't fall forever. Eventually, you're going to pick yourself up. So what's love after that? What's love when it keeps on going? What's love after the effort? Well, I think love is the effort. I think that every day when you wake up and choose what person you're going to wake up next to, when you go through hard times and you look to them for support, when you're not ready, and you let them know what you need and what you don't need, when you talk to them, when you reach out, when you reconnect, when you don't connect, but you always have them in your heart. I think that's what love is. I think it's this kind of, it's like a ripple or a tear in spacetime. It's like two particles that are meant to forever connect and reconnect and refuse and separate and find each other, even if there's no way that's possible. I think that love is that time when I thought, I was never going to see you again. And I cried. That's what love is. It's those moments. It's that effort. It's that time. It's falling. It's standing up. It's telling your parents that I'm sorry for what I've done to their daughter. It's those awkward conversations I have trying to forgive you for things you don't apologize for. That time, that space, that's what love is to me.