We surveyed our friends and found the best love stories out there. Enjoy all these magical stories of true love.

1. “I knew I was in love the first time I saw him cry in front of me. We were in a long distance relationship, I was dropping him off at the airport after our first week together. We had spent short times together on either side of the country, but this was the first time we had spent a significant period of time together. It was raining outside and I noticed his eyes well up as I pulled up near the airport. We embraced and it took everything I had to let go. I knew leaving me was so hard for him because he hadn’t cried in years; he’s not the type to be vulnerable. I wanted to make sure we never had to say goodbye like that again. It’s been 4 years and there’s no longer a 5 hour plane ride separating us, every time I look at him I feel just as loved as I did in that moment.” — Melissa, 27

2. “I watched her hold her little brother while he cried because he was too little to understand that their mom was coming back. She’d never looked more beautiful, I felt in that moment that she was the best person I’d ever know.” — Chris, 24

3. “I went to Philly and saw a mural street art tour where you travel on a train line and all the murals look like they were written by someone trying to tell a train passenger that they love them, it’s called A Love Letter For You. Every single one felt like it was about him, like listening to a song on a loop. ” — Sharanya, 25

4. “We were walking my roommates dog and the sun was going down, it was fall. She looked at me just as the brightest ray hit her eyes, which are normally a very standard brown, but in that split second they were the brightest gold, and I just wanted to tell her I was in love.” — Joseph, 24

5. “He held my hair back while I vomited all night after blacking out at his birthday party and making a fool of myself. The next morning, he had breakfast and ibuprofen on deck. If that aint love, then I don’t know what love is.” — Erin, 25

6. “I knew I loved her when she was puking in a bin after we got home from drinking, she kept yelling “don’t look!” and I swear I just wanted to kiss her.” — Andrew, 22

7. “I heard her laugh in the dining hall. It was obnoxious. I could hear it from outside, up the stairs, in the lobby. I had to find the girl with that laugh, I swear to God I knew that I felt like if I could make her laugh, I’d have everything I needed.” — Cody, 27

8. “He read a short story out loud in class. I heard his accent and I was hooked, and then his writing moved me to tears, and I was so embarrassed and even more hooked.” — Heather, 28

9. “We met online and I was so nervous going to our date. When I sat down, the first thing she said to me was, ‘Oh, thank god, you’re not a dude.’ (Apparently guys use lesbian dating apps to meet girls?) And I just laughed so hard at that. It really broke the ice. I don’t know, I think, looking back after 2 years together, I must have known I loved her then.” — Kim, 27

10. “I saw him dancing at the bar, like rubbing his ass on one of my friends. We were all out together and he was laying it on thick to get my friends to like him. He looked so stupid.” — Jamie, 21

11. “We’d only been seeing each other for two weeks when she got into a really bad car accident. She was in the hospital for a whole weekend, she woke up and barely remembered who I was, so I gave her an envelope full of all our texts and the receipts for the first date we have printed out. It came back to her and I realized I could never lose her.” — Luke, 29

12. “I knew I loved him when I asked him for a cigarette outside of a bar and he took out a pack of Marlboro reds, my brand.” — Kate, 25

13. “I was dating his best friend and we were pretty unhappy, and I was going through my friend’s texts to see if she had been texting her ex when I saw texts from him, saying that he was in love with me and couldn’t help it. I know it’s messed up because I was with his friend, but in that moment I knew I was stupid, head over heels, off my ass in love with him too.” — Christina, 31

14. “My boyfriend and I had been together about 3 months when I realized I loved him. It hit me out of nowhere, actually. I really wasn’t sure if him and I were going to get to that point. One night, we were driving back to his apartment and we got off the freeway and there was this young woman crying frantically on the side of the road and so he told me to pull over and he jumped out of the car and helped this woman, who had apparently lost her cat. He got back in the car after that and I looked at him like he was a completely different person. Yeah, that was 5 years ago. Still in love.” — Rose, 32

15. “She followed me into the bathroom at the bar just to make out with me. How could I not fall in love with her?” — Owen, 24

16. “He met my parents and I hadn’t come out yet. He was angry with me for not having come out and I thought the meeting would go horribly wrong, but when my parents asked him how he knew me, he immediately answered by saying ‘I’m his girlfriend’s best friend!’ They loved him. I came out the next day.” — Sam, 27

17. “He fell on his ass in front of me and huge group of people, it was snowing. I went to help him up and he pulled me down with him and said ‘it’s not so bad down here with a pretty girl.’ So cheesy, so perfect.” — Sarah, 23

18. “I know this is the cheesiest thing ever and I never thought this kind of stuff happens until it happened to me. I knew i loved her the moment I saw her. It was instant. I was completely mesmerized by her. Then, she laughed at something her friend said, and I was like, this is it for me. I need to know this woman immediately. Thankfully, she fell in love with me, too.” — Kwesi, 29

19. “Woke up from a dream where she didn’t exist, that was the whole dream. We’d only been dating for a few weeks, but I had this dream where I couldn’t find her and I woke up sweating. I felt like I knew what love felt like, the feeling that you couldn’t possibly lose that person.” — Brendan, 23

20. “When we kissed for the first time and she was AWFUL but I wanted to keep kissing her anyway, I knew it was love.” — Kyle, 20

21. “I’ve been in love before but I’m not sure if there was ever a specific moment where I just ‘knew.’ I think love sort of happens slowly, then all at once. It’s like the person is there, they’ve always been there, but you start noticing little details about them – the way they laugh when they think something is really funny, how they look in the morning when they’re tired and quiet, the small noises they make when they’re getting comfortable – all of these things they’ve been doing for years they don’t even realize they do anymore but are completely unique to them and new to you. Each moment of discovery increases just how endearing you find them until it builds up and builds up and then you have no choice but to blurt out “I LOVE YOU!” when doing something totally mundane together like shopping for glassware at Target or standing in line at a concert.” — Jeanne, 25 

Feel free to share your true love stories in the comments!

Bonus: 6 Heartwarming Love Stories About Lost Loves Finally Reuniting

1. like being struck by lightning: “Reuniting with my lost love was like being struck by lightning. He and I had been in a serious relationship back in high school 30 years ago. My mother did not approve of our relationship and unfortunately sent me out of the area to keep me away from him….Then this past October I received an email….We emailed back and forth for a few weeks and then I spoke with him on the phone and that’s when the dam broke! All the emotions came pouring down on me just hearing his voice. In a very short time it became clear that we had very strong feelings for one another….Right now we are going to be seeing each other monthly, and I will be selling my property at the end of the school year to move up to his area. I love him with all my heart and soul and don’t care what faults he has. I would do anything for him. It’s hard for people that haven’t experienced this to understand it. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined this to happen. It is a roller coaster of very intense feelings that don’t always make sense to me! And it’s so hard to be apart from him now! When my mother broke us up, she returned his class ring that he had given me to his mother. For Christmas, he found the class ring, and wrapped it up for me, I was very touched. I wear it around my neck on a gold chain now to remind me of him. I look to our future with much hope and optimism.”

2. I am so happy: “In 1998 I met the love of my life in Sudan. A wonderful Sudanese musician who brought out the best in me every day. His presence in my life was like the sun shining in. When he performed, he sang for me only. I was working in Sudan at the time, we were going to get married and have beautiful children and live happily ever after. There was a war going on, I was working with war-affected children and the government kicked me out. I was devastated and cried for 6 months. Heartbroken for years. We did not manage to meet up again and we both married unhappily. Last week, after 14 years, we were reunited for 2 days and the love is as strong as ever. I feel so blessed. Too old to have those children now, but this is going to be the best year ever as we are free to travel and see each other. My dream of gracefully growing old with him is coming true after all….I am so happy.”

3. The feelings and emotions came flooding back with a vengeance: “Met my lost love almost 30 years ago in high school….In a nutshell we shared chemistry and a sexual tension that was palpable to those around us. We occasionally kissed (sometimes passionately), but never crossed the line from friends to lovers. After three years of being friends, hanging out and helping each other (here and there) our friendship blossomed into something more. We finally shared a kiss that was undeniable. Sadly, parental disapproval was the cause for me leaving my love. We drifted apart and our contact to each other became less and less. However, I never forgot her although after 20 years I ‘thought’ the past was the past. We recently reconnected and decided to meet one afternoon and get caught up on the intervening years, nothing more. What happened next was so unexpected. The feelings and emotions came flooding back with a vengeance. It was as if our relationship had been placed on hold. We rekindled our relationship inside of one week. Our second-chance relationship has been the most emotionally charged relationship of my life. The fears, emotions, grief, regrets, everything—everything came back like a flood. Over the next few months we talked about everything imaginable. We married in just over 6 months. My soulmate, my love, and now—my wife….Our rekindled relationship has been the most incredible journey, that started almost three decades ago and lasted through all those lonely years.”

4. I had to fight back tears: “As a teenager, I had the kind of love that everyone dreams of finding. My most cherished memory is an incredible feeling of oneness when we would hold each other and shed tears of joy while being overwhelmed by love. At such times, there was no need for words because we just knew. She had more of an influence on my life than anyone else that I have known….After drawing me away from bad influences when we got together, she started hanging out with the wrong crowd four years later. Being young, ambitious, and foolish, I broke up with her in order to save myself from being drawn back in the wrong direction. I always had second thoughts about that decision and never stopped loving her. I was haunted by the memory of her last words when we broke up, which were ‘I love you.’…I finally decided that I had to contact her about 30 years after we broke up, 25 years since I last saw her, and 20 years since her last letter….I was thrilled that she was happy to hear from me and that she had been trying to find me….During the long drive to our hometown, I had to fight back tears every time I thought what it would be like to look into her eyes for the first time in decades…I immediately felt comfortable with her, and we picked up right where left off many years ago. She kept her hair long, and it felt so good to run a brush through it again. Behaving like teenagers, we spent the first evening going parking and listening to our favorite songs….We never got to spend the night together as teenagers. When it finally happened, I lay there beside her awake all night thinking how lucky I was to have her back.”

5. even a continent couldn’t separate us: “Three-year-old Anne moved with her family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, just four houses down from my family; I was five, and we two became immediate friends. I was Anne’s protector and hero….I hadn’t spoken to Anne in more than 30 years, but I knew her sister lived in Denver so I gave her a call when I arrived. She told me that Anne also lived in town, and she suggested that we all get together. As soon as Anne and I saw each other, our hearts were singing. All of the excitement and joy they we had experienced together as children transformed itself into a mature form; we were in love. We saw each other once more before I returned to Pennsylvania and Anne left for Europe to spend the Christmas holiday season with her children. But now even a continent couldn’t separate us. Today we are living our lives together, again with joy, enthusiasm, and excitement!…And of course now we have our children, too. What a miracle!”

6. Now we’ve lost all of our teenage inhibitions: “Eric and I met in 1950 and from the moment we began dating I knew we were made for each other. We had so much fun—Eric was always making me laugh…I never forgot about Eric. Every time I heard our song, ‘Jealous Heart’, by Connie Francis, I recalled the first time Eric kissed me….[Then one day] I was serving at the bar when a voice I’d not heard for nearly 40 years asked me if there was any chance of a pint. I looked up and there was Eric, the hair was greyer and the face a little more wrinkled but other than that he was just as handsome as ever….Our relationship is just as passionate and physical as before, although now we’ve lost all of our teenage inhibitions.”