Because I love you, I believe in love- the kind that tugs at my heart, obliging me to deal with the knots belching from within my stomach.

            There is a love in which you sit waiting for the text to come in, for the phone to ring, for the notification to pop up, telling you that special someone has just liked your post. You know the love I am referring to, for you, too, have felt it. This is the love in which you jump at the slightest notion of a ‘ding’ only to find out your mom wants you to pick up a loaf of bread on your way home. This love is not genuine love, nor is this the love that I believe in.

            Rather, I believe in authentic love. This is a love in which you know that no text, no call, no insta notification, no silly nor sexy snap will have your throat in your stomach and your heart in your throat. Your heart maybe fluttering at a million miles per hour, but your apprehension will have subsided. This is the love whereby you do not ache and thirst to unzip from your quirks.

            I believe in a love in which you love your best friend and your best friend is your love.       

            I believe that love is not a game yet you can play with those you love. Social games and hidden identities behind bricks of appearances will not do. Simple confab whereby diction rolls off of the tip of your tongue during tangible face-to-face interactions is the propelling factor of this ‘play.’

            I believe in a reciprocal love, not a one-sided stalking chase. A multifaceted love involves two parties, for one perspective is simply a crush. Crushes do not surrogate love.

            I believe in a love in which you hanker for discourse with your love. This rhetoric does not gravitate towards any such level of intellect nor lunacy, for you value your love’s opinion and you openly express yours. True love sanctions eccentricity.

            I believe in a love of common interests and reciprocal actions. You open doors for one another. Nothing is one-sided. You pay your own dues, for you should be independent of one another yet work as a synchronized team.

            I believe in a love in which you understand one’s flaws and help to show them the perfection of their imperfections. You love their imperfections more than their perfections. If you are one of the lucky few to have a partner with a razor sharp jaw line, you not only love them for their abilities to cut paper with the side of their face, but you also love them for their ability to clumsily trip over the air itself. You love them for their ability to skew words into some new dialect that only they can begin to speak. You love them for their quirks. You not only know their favorite color is seafoam green, but you also know why crimson red burns their very well-being.

            I believe in a love that never subsides. No matter what happens, the flames that burn this fire will only progress into a blazing rhapsody. It is the fire that manages to burn the entire forest yet fuel it with vivacity that will live for an eternity.

            Because I love you, I believe in this very definition of love.