Weekly Blog May 14th, 2017: Love

Hello Internet!

First of all I want to apologize that this post is a day late. I had a very long day yesterday involving a long day at work, major car trouble, and celebrating Mother’s Day. I do want to do a quick shout out to my Mother who is my biggest supporter and always reads my stuff. Also happy (belated) Mother’s Day to all the other mothers out there who read my pieces and I hope you had a wonderful Mother’s Day. If you missed Mother’s Day, go surprise your Mom with some flowers or chocolate, or maybe just give her a call. You know she misses you.

Now for my not-so-subtle segue to this week’s topic. Love. Now I’m not talking about the love between a mother and their child (although that is important), I’m talking about romantic love. The kind of love between a husband and wife, boyfriend and girlfriend, significant others, or a single guy/girl crushing on a single guy/girl. (Whatever you’re into. I’m not here to judge.) Romantic love that can be expressed by holding hands, a kiss, flowers, candy, trips together, or a diamond ring.

I decided to go with the topic of love this week because I’ve been thinking a lot about it over the past few weeks. A bunch of small things kind of added up to make me think about this topic. First thing is that I watched three different movies that all touched on the subject of love. All three were movies that left my emotions raw and they are movies that after watching them made me think “yeah this is what love is supposed to be about.” The first one I watched was the anime movie, “Your Name” which focuses on two individuals who periodically switch bodies for the day. I don’t want to spoil anything because I hate spoilers, but its a really good movie and I’d definitely recommend it. Its a movie that pulls at the heart strings. The second movie I watched was La La Land; the movie that won a lot of Oscars, but not THE Oscar. Its a musical with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone (*swoon*) that takes place in Los Angeles as a struggling musician and a struggling actress have to balance love versus career. Again, a movie I’d definitely recommend not only for the story, but also for the music, the choreography, and the visuals. Plus Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, what’s not to love? The third and final movie I watched was Sing Street. A 2016 movie set in Ireland in the 1980s where a high-school aged boy with a gift of music navigates a new school, deals with his parents constantly fighting, finding love, and starting a bad. Another fantastic movie with great music, great comedy, and a great budding love story. All of these movies handled the idea of love in a different way and each of them left me with anxiety and sadness and happiness, all at the same time. I loved all of them, but at times they weren’t afraid to bring up all kinds of emotions to the surface.

Of course this is Hollywood love you must be thinking. Hollywood sets unrealistic expectations for love for cinematic purposes. And yeah that’s true. Even Anime can fall into the tropes that reflect an unrealistic expectation for love and relationships, but really is it so bad? I personally find the idea of Hollywood romance as a good starting point. Obviously people’s lives aren’t like movies and their relationships aren’t going to be either, so saying that your romance is going to be exactly like a movie is unrealistic. However, I consider myself a hopeless romantic and I believe that love should be filled with large, romantic gestures.

Let me fill in a little information about myself and then I’ll talk about how I think love should work. I should start by saying that I’m a single guy in my early 20’s so I don’t have a ton of romantic experience. I haven’t been in a long term relationship and I don’t go on a ton of dates. However I still have my perceptions of what love should look like from the people around me. I know people who are in relationships where you can just tell that there is a spark between them even after years of a relationship. Every day they fall more and more in love with each other. Then there’s some people who are in a relationship who just looks like they are going through the motions but don’t really have that spark anymore. They are together just because they are together. Usually those relationships don’t work out so well.

I believe that when I do fall in love (*fingers crossed*) its going to be with a girl who loves romantic gestures whether that be a surprise weekend trip, giving flowers just because, snuggling on the couch as we watch the newest season of a Netflix original, or maybe it’s just making dinner and then doing the dishes afterwards. I want a love where I wake up thinking I’m the luckiest guy in the world to have her in my life, she wakes up thinking she’s the luckiest gal in the world to have me in her life, and we can’t comprehend why the other thinks that. A love that shapes my reality to the point where I can’t comprehend a life without them next to my side and so strong that I believe in all parallel universes, we find each other and live out those alternative lives together. I want to go on adventures with her and dance with her and just do a ton of fun stuff with her. I don’t want that spark to ever fade and I don’t ever want to think that I’m just going through the emotions.

Is this intensity of the relationship a little unrealistic? Maybe. I guess I’ll know if I ever find that kind of love. Again I consider myself a hopeless romantic and I know that I add a little bit of writer’s flair to my description, but I truly believe that some people have relationships that just seem like they were made for each other. I do believe in soul mates and I really hope that I find mine one day. I know that relationships aren’t always sunshine and rainbows. There’s going to be anger, sadness, misunderstanding, and raw emotional moments. No matter how bad those moments get, I want to know deep down in my soul that its worth it because the happy moments. The moments we have together is going to be worth it.

Anyway that’s just some thoughts on love and romance and grand romantic gestures. I hope everyone out there either has that kind of love or finds it. Maybe the person reading this is actually my soul mate. (*Twilight Zone music plays*). Wouldn’t that be weird?

Ok, I should probably end it there. I hope you enjoyed this piece and that you continue to come back and read my stuff. Please spend some time on the website and feel free to leave some likes, comments, or just some views. I’m thankful for it all!

Have a wonderful week!

-Allen_The_Writer