Personal Essay #2

Illustrated by Jacqueline Davis Moranti

Does anyone truly know what love is? So many different faces to it, so many different answers, that it most surely can't be acquired. Many say that real love is the true source of happiness, the one without any causes of pain. Although, isn't it true that in any relationship, whether it's with your mother, father, sibling, friend or even your professor cause grief to an extent?! I wonder if anyone stops to think that maybe, quite possibly what we're looking for is a figment of our imagination. A fairy tale to tell children so that their dreams of princes and princesses guide them through their slumber. 

The answer may seem elusive because it has so many variants. It can feel like a commitment, infatuation, nurturing, or dedication that we feel to not one, but countless different people. How I feel towards my dog is totally different than how I feel towards my parents or chocolate chip, mint ice cream. Love can feel as mundane and necessary as air, moving through it, essentially unnoticed. Disadvantaged, and it can feel like a waning obsession. In my short amount of years alive, I have felt love and I have lost that feeling of love. It's much easier to say that love is an experience rather than a definition. And yet the ambiguity of love is that it is free but also attaches us with bonds stronger than any other. You can choose to hate it or "love" it, because in actuality love is life's greatest lesson.