The moment you think love exists... can you trust it?
Love is, possibly the most complicated emotion that can be. Do you love, or do you lust. Do you love or do you yearn, do you love or do you just need another to need you?
What most of us aspire to, we want someone in our lives that see us, as much as we see them. It's a deep seated desire that we are needed, it's a deep seated bond to keep up going. It can get to the stage that if we aren't needed by anyone, we wonder why we even exist.
On the opposite side, many mistake interest, obsession, physical attraction, as someone who 'thinks' they are in love.
Back in the day, my teenage 'sexual/hormonal' experiences I think were border line love, I 'knew' I wasn't sexually appealing, that's not a call for sycophants it just simply is, I was fat, I wasn't on a sports team, I was geeky etc things back in the day were 'minuses' in the relationship stakes. However I got to be with girls who wanted to be with me, because I just wanted to make them happy. Even in my older years when I had money, when I was physically more appealing through boxing, I still think they were with me because my priority was their happiness. Too young to 'understand' love maybe. To experience it, no. The girls I was with, I was more concerned that they had a good time than me (continued into adulthood infact), I was obsessed with girls being happier in the relationship regardless of where I was.
Often the older generation are passive aggressive about young love, they don't think it can exist, because you need experience in their opinion. However you can't have experience without experiencing , and on that basis you have to have been in love to know if you have been.
To fastward, I'm not even in a relationship right now, there's been previous, to the degree of ending a relationship on the basis not making 'them' happy, I class that as love, to free them to find happiness elsewhere (questionable).
There's a girl I'm interested in right now, and it's "complicated" to know she's even genuinely interested. I'd argue it is love. I've procrastinated about it, worried my thoughts/feelings are in the wrong place, changed lifestyle, started learning a new language (her native) because I think it'll make her happy. I've never been "intimate" with said person, I just know I would do whatever's needed to make that person happy, the worst thing that could happen would be to make them unhappy for any reason. On that basis I would class it as love.
And that's ultimately all love is, sacrifice to make someone happy. Hopefully that sacrifice is reciprocated, because then you have a loving relationship, Both benefiting from each other, then what more do you need.
But even on the duo relationship, love applies to those around you. I have friends male and female who I 'love' people who I would sacrifice my own happiness to ensure theirs. Is that weird, I don't believe so, only if you restrict love to the gender that you're attracted too.
Love is a strange and wondrous thing, can everyone experience it, no. I believe you can only experience it through another's happiness, is everyone designed/evolved to create happiness in another, no, and so not everyone's designed to experience love. Because they have evolved to survive alone.
I am almost jealous of a person who cannot experience love, because it requires social removal I can't cope with. In which case that person only has the happiness of themself to motivate their actions. Which breaking it down doesn't sound that bad, if you're happy then is that ok? well it depends how you gain happiness...
Then almost paradoxically, if someone talks to me about their lives, they ask me 'am I doing the right thing?' usually with relationships. My simple answer is, does it make you happy? I've just spone about love being making someone else happy, however if doing so can't maintain your happiness, a little like a crash diet, it can bring results but you can't maintain it. If you can't maintain 'your' happiness, then you can't maintain their happiness. The interim is simply keeping someone happy through the misguided view of love, which is just measured by your tolerance before breaking point.