Love, true love etc..... what do these words actually mean? What is that 'wondrous' feeling that people get when people fall in love? History has been witness to hundreds and thousands of sagas of epic-true love stories, some meeting with a sorry ending....while others with a super-cute happy ending! In this short nearly-20 years old life of mine, I've thought saying those three words to many girls, but as always I just couldn't bring myself to voice that thought. Why? Simply because I didn't know the meaning of that word "love". Just in the same way, I have oft ridiculed my friends, those who profess to have fallen in love. Why? Because those duffers don't know the meaning of that word! I feel sorry for those teenagers in the dating-phase and tell each "I love you" and exchange the soppiest of gifts(that sometimes makes me sick)! Why? Because I can give in writing, on Rs. 500 bond-paper, the exact expiry date of such relationships......LOL!
Now I'm sure almost every person who reads this post will consider me the ungodly cynic, rather than the philosopher, especially those of you who are die-hard, hard-core and extreme romance-enthusiasts, those of you who watch movies like Valentine's Day, (the #EPIC) Titanic and of course, the Notebook and (#waste) spend your time reading Mills and Boone's romance novels! Well for starters, let me tell you, I'm just one of you, one of those hopeless romantics who is waiting for that special someone to walk into his/her life, always daydreams of being that knight-in-shining-armour for his paramour and one who detests sad-endings in books and movies!
So why this kinda attitude you ask! Well let's just put it to experience. Luckily, I've never had the misfortune of having assumed that I was in love with someone else, I've experienced this vicariously through most of my friends! Well all of them have told their respective BFs and GFs those three so-called magic words! I'm sure that it does induce the mood for a steamy make-out session, but that's as far it goes folks! In the beginning of a teenage relationship, I'm sure that there is that "magic", you can't bear to spend time apart, your message pack gets over within a couple of days and your Dad will shout at you for having x10'ed the telephone bill....LOL! There is a reason why it's called 'Sweet-Sixteen' you know! But what happens in like 5 months?
You realise that you actually like his/her best friend! You get super/hyper-jealous when he/she talks to a person of the opposite sex! You feel that you aren't getting enough of your BF/GF....well that's where it gets ugly! What's worse, he/she might pressure you into certain forms of physical intercourse with them....why? Because they "LOVE" you! Not so rosy eh?
So all you teenagers(technically I no longer am :P), has your perspective of relationships changed at least a little bit? Well let's just put it this way: Relationships at your age are good! Shocked? Well yeah.....my point here isn't that relationships are injurious to health! In fact, I support teenage relationships! Why? Well because they teach you many things....like tenacity for one! It also gives you lessons in sharing, caring and most of all consideration! So all my teenage friends, if you truly "like" someone.....just go for it, in the words of Sir Richard Branson: "Screw it, let's do it"!(wrong context, I know)
But then, what have I been blabbering about all this while? Why am I saying that I support these relationships when I'm like down with teenage love! Look, we are brought up by parents in an environment which is filled with love, the kind of intense love that our parents shower upon us, the kind of love we know until......!
Until we come across our first movie, where the hero tells the heroine, "I love you"! And that's it, we're so screwed! We confuse parental love with movie-love and into to the picture comes our first crush! So we're worse than scrambled eggs(my fav preparation btw)! We then confuse infatuation with movie-love and parental-love with this infatuation and that is when "shit happens", literally! Now this is where most teenagers find themselves.
My point is that teenagers cannot possibly know the meaning of true love! So when they bring that word "love" into their adolescent relationships, they set high standards and expectations for the relationship, obviously because of their previous experiences with love, parental love! These expectations are so hopelessly high that they go into depression because their opposite numbers aren't able to live up to those lofty expectations while not noticing that they are doing just the same thing! So what is this now? A sure-shot recipe for disaster, in colloquial terms, break-up!!!
So my advice to teenagers: enjoy life, too much seriousness at this age isn't good for your health and yeah, for heaven's sake, don't ever say I love you before you turn 21(2 years for good measure :P)!
