What Being in Love Means to Me: My Testimony

Being in love is the indelible message snuggled safely within the fragile bottle of life; bobbing up and down in a vast sea of obstacles and victories. It is the concrete foundation anchoring our skyscrapers as we bend and sway in the clouds. Being in love is the safety net waiting to embrace us when we fall from the flying trapeze.

Being in love is the capacity to be mad, insane, jealous, empathetic, understanding, and forgiving – all at the same time. It is an F-5 tornado with a one-way ticket to Oz. It is running with the bulls while sipping on sangria. It is waking up in Peru when you thought you were in Paris. It is the scratch on a favorite album and the proclamation of a surprise snow day. Being in love is all or nothing; it is both pain and anesthesia.

Being in love is an instant and an eternity. It is a look, a smile, an accidental touch. It is the scent of lust and chocolate mixed with mothballs and yellowed pictures. Being in love is knowing when to know and knowing when to play dumb. It is the tootsie roll at the middle of the hard candy shell even when you forget to count the licks.

Being in love is passionate and boring. It is rose petals on the floor and drool on the pillows. It is dirty laundry and sunshine. It is an infinite marathon of annoying infommercials where celebrities shout at you and leave stains on your carpets in between your favorite episodes of Little House on the Prairie, The Twilight Zone, and Good Times. Being in love is the promise of better living through pharmaceuticals accompanied by all the unsettling side effects.

Being in love is the willingness to get sticky at the buffet while sampling life’s surprising delicacies together. It is holding on to everything while letting everything go. Being in love is growing together as separate individuals. It is the constant renewal of friendship and cultivation of trust. It is making mistakes and allowing mistakes to be made. Being in love is the ability to live in the moment while embracing the past and the future.

Being in love is what I am.