Love is not a definition in the dictionary, or something you see. Walking around the streets and halls of a school watching 14-17 year olds make out isn’t love. Liking a movie series, book, or food a lot isn’t love. Your definition of love depends on how you were raised. Did you grow up a very strong Christian, or become one later in life? If so, your definition in love is probably the bible quote, “God is Love.” If you grew up in a house full of hate, you never see what love is. Love to you could be punching your child or wife in the face and telling them they are useless. Then buying them a new shirt the next day, or ignoring the altogether. For me Love is a lot of things. Love is how you feel when you’re in a room full of your favorite people in your favorite place. Love is not only an emotion, but a happening. Love can be what you are most passionate about, even a person. A parent can’t tell you that it’s hormones, because a hormone does not control your aspirations. I grew up in a house that showed me both sides of love. I grew up with an amazing family who fed me and clothed me, and who loved me so much it emanated across the house. I also grew up in a house where my parents did nothing but fight with each other, and with the people around them. I grew up with a mother twice divorced and once widowed. One side of my family tells me not to worry about love. God loves me and that’s all I need to know. The other side tells me love is only an illusion. But I am finished with listening to them. Love is not an illusion, because if it was, how would this world run? I know God loves me, but so do other people, and I them. I may only be 16, but I am slowly uncovering the truth of love, and what it boils down to. I haven’t found what love is yet. I can only find what it is not. What I have found so far is that love is not a hormone, or an infatuation, or an illusion. Love is not an object, or a day of the year represented by hearts and the colors red and pink. Love is not physical and emotional pain or joy. It is not a statement of saying “I love you.” John Lennon’s lyric “All we need is love,” is not true. We need more than love. Gravity does not hold love to us. Love is more than a passion. It is more than an emotion. Love is more than life itself, and trying to understand it is like trying to walk without legs, or breathe without lungs. Love is much too complicated for us humans to understand. So the safest bet is to accept it’s in the air around us, and that it’s always going to be lurking around the corner waiting to snatch you up so you can complete life. "Take away love, and our earth is a tomb." -Robert Browning