How (not) to love

I'm Only Sixteen

"Are you awake?"

"I am now. What's up?"

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, hit me."

"What is love?"

"What?"

"Y'know, what does it mean? To love someone."

"How am I to know? I'm only sixteen. Sixteen year olds don't know what love is."

"That's just the thing. It's believed by most everyone that young people have no idea how to love, what it consists of. What age though, is someone supposed to know how to love?"

"Pardon?"

"Well, at sixteen you get your drivers license. At eighteen you become a legal adult, and you can vote and such. At twenty one, you can legally drink. At thirty five, you technically can run for president of the United States."

"Do you wanna tell me where you're going with this?"

"There's a certain age for all of those, but is there a certain age that you're to know what love means? Do you like, wake up on your birthday at that age and suddenly know this big secret about how to truly love someone?"

"I wouldn't think so..."

"Exactly! So why is it that people our age are just automatically not allowed to know what love is?"

"Maybe we aren't mature enough."

"Bullshit. Why does everyone act like there's only one definition of love, anyways?"

"I really don't know. What I do know is that it's 2 a.m, so can we talk about this later?"

"No, no. I'll lose my train of thought. Just bear with me for a second."

"Fine. The things I do for you, I swear."

"Thank you."

"Mhm."

"Everyone has a different perception on what love is. I bet you any amount of money that if you ask any old human being what the one true definition of love is, they won't be able to give you an actual answer. If they did give you an answer, I'll bet you anything else that their answer wouldn't match up to every other old human being you could ask. It's impossible to know for sure if there is even one true definition of love at all."

"Yes, I suppose."

"That being said, what is love?"

"You're confusing me. Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Just tell me what YOU think love is."

"Dude, I have no idea."

"Give it your best shot.

"Okay, well... I guess love is when you care about someone to such an incredible extent that they're all you think about. When you wake up, when you go to sleep, and everything in between. It's all them. Their face is permanently engraved in your brain. Their voice, their laugh, the little things about them, everything. It's all in your memory. It's always there. Whenever you have an enjoyable experience you can't help but wish they were there to experience it with you. It's also as if your happiness is their happiness. You can't be happy if they're not happy. It's simply not possible. Your hearts are intertwined as one. You know when you get your earbuds all tangled up and can't for the life of you get them untangled? That. That's what your hearts are like. It won't come untangled no matter what. If they do something that angers you, it's really only temporary because you just care about them so much that you can see the good shine through anyways. That, my friend, is what love is."

"Whoa."

"What?"

"You're in love, aren't you."

"No."

"Yes you are. You definitely are."

"I'm not. Go to bed."

"I knew it! I knew you loved him! Wow, it's so obvious. I should have realized earlier. I mean, you ALWAYS tell me about how much you care about him and he's all you think about. You love him."

"I'm only sixteen. Sixteen year olds don't know what love is."