All The Things Nobody Told Me About Love

I came to know love through literature, films and the people around me who has been and are in a relationship. I learned that love is wonderful but it could also hurt; that it could make us stare at the ceiling all night, just thinking; and that it can have us dancing even without music.

What nobody told me is that love can be so much more when you experience it firsthand. Nobody said that it can be something greater even with its simplicity.

When I first saw love, he was not wearing a shiny, golden cape nor was he riding a big, white horse. It is not like that of fairy tales.

Instead, love was just wearing a green T-shirt, and almost bumped into me on the busy street going home. Not just like what happen in movies, there was no eye contact because we were looking ahead to the place we’re going to, and were busy dodging the pool of people coming towards us. Love can be as simple as that. Nevertheless, I saw love like a highlighted phrase in a book, and I can still remember that night.

When love arrives, I thought he will be walking in slow motion with his hair being brushed by the wind. I thought that in my ears there would be an orchestra or a chorale with their perfectly harmonized tunes. It turns out that the movies I watch are wrong.

There was just silence and the only thing I could hear was the sound of my heartbeat, drumming against my chest. Love does not come in slow motion and the wind does not make his hair dance. Instead, love comes in a pause between two points in time, and then proceeds in fast forward.

I thought love would be prince charming. The fairytales were wrong again.

Love does not have blue eyes, but I still thought they could drown. His were those expressive brown orbs and they were not less than beautiful.

Just like in movies, love can indeed brighten up the surroundings with his smile. But they were wrong about another thing—his teeth were not perfect. Love can also have braces.

Sometimes, love can have porcelain skin. But more often, love has tiny pimples on his nose and forehead, and little stubbles on his chin.

I thought love will be a lot similar to me, but in some aspects, he’s not. Love does not write, but likes to read. Love is more interested in bands, while I listen more to solo artists. I realized, love and I can be different from each other in a lot of ways, or disagree with each other about a lot of things, but it would still be fine.

In some literatures, love seems perfect. But they were wrong.

Love has insecurities and problems. Love makes mistakes. Love also has his own brokenness. But those things do not make him ugly. Instead, they make him more real—more human. These imperfections only make him more loveable.

Love is not everything like how they are written in a book or showed in a movie or narrated by my friend. Nobody said that more than that said sleepless night is a feeling of excitement for the next day to come and finally see him again. Nobody said that more than that dancing without music is a heart that beats a thousand times in a minute. Nobody said that love is more than wonderful and cannot be described with just one word.

These are the things about love that nobody told me and I was glad I’m discovering them myself.