You Don’t Need To Be Dating To Experience Love, It’s All Around You!

It would be easy for me to say that I don’t believe in love.

I have seen enough people get hurt, including myself, from love gone wrong. Relationships, marriages, friendships— even the ones that you never thought would end, do.

On top of that, the amount of hatred circulating the world and the media is overwhelming. It’s unfortunately becoming so prevalent in our society that we seem almost un-phased when bad things happen nowadays.

When you’re surrounded by so much negativity and darkness, sometimes it is damn near impossible to believe that there are positive things out there. That amongst all the hate, there is love somewhere that still exists.

But, it’s kind of our fault.

We are always limiting the possibilities of love. Love doesn’t have to be between two people. It doesn’t have to be displayed on a billboard in Times Square. Love doesn’t have to be inspired by the main plot of a romance novel, or resemble the choreographed dance number in ‘500 Days of Summer.’ Even if it is not obvious, that doesn’t mean it is not out there.

You see, the problem with love is that it often goes unnoticed. We don’t ever seem to give it enough credit. This is because it’s always being overshadowed by everything that goes wrong, forever getting lost in the shuffle of bad news.

It always is underestimated, too. When we get our hearts broken or end up disappointed by someone, it is easy to fall into a cynical point of view and lose hope. Everyone is or has been guilty of it at some point.

Well, I think it’s about time we stop viewing love and our world with tunnel vision and start opening our eyes to the little ways that it is presented all around us on a daily basis.

It could be the stranger who held the door for you when your hands were full yesterday leaving work. Or maybe it is the feeling of watching your little brother who was full of excitement when he finally rode his bike sans training wheels for the first time.

Love can be the sight of pure joy when someone overseas returns home at the airport, immediately swarmed by signs and hugs. When your heart feels full from a night well spent with good friends and family reminiscing and laughing, it is more than likely present there as well.

After all, that is one of the most beautiful things about love. Even when it feels like you’ll never find it, or that you lost it, or you have simply given up on it—it ends up coming back into your life, without fail. You just have to let it.