Most people my age are looking for love, and they don't know what to expect. Our teen ages are meant for us to find ourselves. We feel pressure from our parents, friends, and loved ones. We try to do our best, but sometimes we fail. This is the time where we are all making fun of each other, and just trying to fit in. Not trying to stand out, but instead, fitting in. In middle school, people don't know what to expect. We leave our friends who we thought we knew, and we find new ones. We see ourselves in a different light and question everything. We do not know if what we have been told is true, so instead, we test it out ourselves. We see our parents, and how happy they are, we think about how we want that love. We start looking around, and looking for “ the one.” We all want a relationship because we think it will bring happiness into our lives. Instead, we find out it ends in disaster and tragedy. Then after the seven stages of grief, we realize we are the only ones who can make us happy. Then, we start looking again. These emotions cause pain, but people say that this pain makes you stronger. Though, why should you have to go through pain, when you are looking for love? Even if you do grow stronger from this experience, you have to go through more relationships, and as we have just figured out, relationships equal disaster.

The second problem is, how do you know if you “ in love.” Love is something that can not be measured, so how do you determine it. The butterflies you get in your stomach when they walk into a room? I get that you have to take a chance and that you have to trust the person, but when you see the person who is meant for you, is the feeling different than everybody else? Are people making movies more dramatic than it actually is? Are they exaggerating the feeling of what it's really like to be in love?

I wouldn't know, but I have the opposite problem than most of my peers. When kids are looking for love, I'm running away from it. When somebody says they like me, I am scared of what love can do to you. I have heard stories and seen up close what heartbreak does to you. When people say that they like me, I get scared and run away, and then when I like somebody, it seems to never work out. Whenever I tell somebody that I like them, they just say sorry, because the feeling isn't mutual. I never understood how these things are supposed to work out. Though, if by chance, when the universe sets everything in place and the person who I like likes me back, I end up getting bored and move on. It seems like it never works out. The few times I put out my heart out on the line, and it gets broken. It is honestly such a struggle to find someone who likes you the same way back. I understand that this is going to be a long journey, but I am not excited.

Also, when you get older, you apparently get more mature, so would your love change? When you are a teenager, most people have a childish relationship. Apparently, according to some adults, kids don’t know what love really is. Though, how do they know? Even though they are married, that doesn't mean that they went through all the same struggles as us. They do not understand our point of view, and because they think that they are older they know better. For most cases that is true, but if you can not measure love in any way, how do you measure the knowledge of it? Teens these days, will give each other hugs and say I love you, even though they do not understand what that really means in the first place. According to adults, they are just acting stupid and foolish. When middle schoolers say that word to each other, it boggles my brain, because they don't really know what love feels like, they just tell each other what they want to hear. You never know what the couple is like unless you are in the relationship, some kids may go through experiences and get a butterfly feeling when they are around a certain person, but parents sometimes just assume that all teen love is the same. Back to when middle schoolers say I love you, they only say those words because that what their partner wants to hear. When they say those three words and eight letters, it changes the world. They know that when you say those three words, you can never take that back. It is such a strong word but used in such a flimsy way.

Doesn't that mean that you are just doing whatever it takes to impress your partner and keep the relationship going? Is that what love is all about, impressing others?

This is a question I assume most kids ask themselves, and maybe even some adults. Everybody goes through different types of pain, love, and other emotions. Nobodies emotions are alike, but we all try to correlate to each other. When disaster comes our way, all the friends and loved ones who care tell you, you are too good for them and that you will move on, but if you do move on, how do you know if you moved on from the wrong person? I get that everybody makes mistakes, but how do you forgive someone who hurt you? How do you know you did not move on from the wrong person? What happens when you move on, but that was the person you were supposed to end up with.

When you fall in love with somebody, you eventually fall out of love. How quickly does that happen? People who are married are not in love all the time, so how do they keep the relationship going? Sometimes, you always love the person, but you don't always like them, so what do you do to show your emotions, without hurting their feelings? I know that some people are meant to be, and others aren't, and I know you need to love yourself before others, trust me, I know all the cliches. I just wonder sometimes how it works in real life?

Love seems to be a complicated subject. I doubt that I am the only one trying to figure it out. Writer’s write about it, artists paint about it, and others look for it. I wonder if anybody has ever gotten to the hidden secret. I wonder if anybody has uncovered what love is really like. I wonder if anybody has compared an adults relationship to a kid. I also wonder if less knowledge in the game of love is better. Shakespeare tried to write a few plays on love, but they seemed to always have a twist. So my question to you is, what does love mean to you?