WHAT IS LOVE?

When I was about 7 years of age, I considered the word “love” as an overused one, almost everyone I knew said “I love you”; in movies, I constantly heard the phrase “I love you”.

I heard it so much that it began to lose meaning. When anyone said the word “love”, I always nodded in confusion and when the love term was directed at me, I ignorantly said “Thank You”. As I grew older, I definitely became wiser but I couldn’t fully decipher the meaning of the word – “love”

Two months before my 10^th birthday, I gained admission into a secondary school (Grade 7) and I was given a long array of academic books to purchase, books ranging from maths to science, general studies and yes, English!

Among the English books for purchase was the English Dictionary. I was simply overjoyed, I had been trying to convince my parents to get me a dictionary, simply because one word had made me confused. I was scared of asking my parents or my teacher, to tell me the meaning of love, I thought they would think of me differently, they would feel I was corrupt.

Two days later, my mum came in with three nylons, all containing books, I remember running to meet her, almost hitting her and carrying all the nylons from her. 

Mum wondered where I got such strength from, truth be told they were really heavy but I didn’t care all I knew was that I was getting answers to long-standing questions. Ignoring other books, I reached out for the dictionary, reciting the alphabets “JKL”. I opened it to letter “L” and my eyes quickly caught the word “Love”. What could I say, I was utterly disappointed.

The dictionary defined love as a deep feeling of deep affection, you have for someone or something.

Don’t forget at that time I was 9 going on 10. This revelation got me thinking “Who do I love?” At that time the answer was simple – My family

Years have passed and things have changed, people now say “I’m falling in love with you” or “We fell in love”. This made me think, is love something you fall into, like a ditch

Love in my own terms should be likened to that feeling that stems from the family, based on care for others, laughter and the communal feeling of togetherness. Love should grow, it should not be something you fall into and it neither should not be instantaneous.

Once again, I ask what is Love?