How Romance Died

I typically don’t write articles about personal feelings but I’d figure for this last one, I’d talk about romance. Here in Pennsylvania you don’t really see a lot of that old romance anymore. The fairytale love? Not even visible to the naked eye. I’m sure plenty of girls grew up watching Disney princess movies waiting for their knight in shining armor to pick them up and spin them around. The type of love you typically see in today’s society is through social media. I haven’t seen one singular couple throughout high school who has pure, genuine love. At a young age, like your teens, we can’t even consider to actually be in a relationship with somebody. 

In today’s generation, teenagers are prone to asking for your Snapchat instead of your mobile number. They’ll then snap pictures that could be considered inappropriate with the text “you’re fine, tryna talk more?”. Some will even bend over backwards begging you to be something with them and telling you that they love you even after a week of communicating.

But what is love? Most aren’t able to answer this question but to me, as a girl who is seventeen years old, love is something that can be shown through words, actions, and even body language. The type of love I view is now considered an ‘old’ type of love. The kind where a girl will get sent a love letter out of nowhere. Being a gentleman and opening the door for your lady, and shaking her dad’s hand when it comes to meeting them.

But it’s not ‘old’ love, it’s actually respect. Getting your girl flowers when you pick her up, noticing the little things and commenting on them. This respect can be love. Leading back to what love really is, it is realizing your significant other had a rough day, and then leaving a sticky note on their car with an uplifting message. Initiating dates and making first moves is love. Dating isn’t necessarily love either, neither is talking all the time. Seeing the harsh side of someone and still loving them the same, that’s love. It’s someone making stuff happen for you when you can’t, it’s someone holding you and calming you down when you’re at your lowest. It’s someone voicing all the good things about you when you can only see the bad in yourself. That’s love. It is unconditional and it never fails. Romance is love and it’s such a fragile thing so if love fails, then it wasn’t ever really love.