Love Comes in All Shapes and Sizes

Do you ever find yourself trying to be a different person just to capture the attention of someone you like? Well, you are not alone. We all have our fair share of insecurities and desire to be different for the sake of romance. The common standards for society in a partner will always be good-looking, smart, and talented. For us who believe we are average or less, we tend to belittle ourselves and manipulate our thoughts thinking we will never be worthy of love unless we change. It took me quite some time to realize that I’ve been too harsh on myself. Love sees beyond worldly things, it does not search for the perfect partner, it brings out the imperfectly perfect version of us and it pairs us with our right match. 

We all know that confidence takes us far but having to be confident even if it makes us unhappy and uncomfortable with who we’re trying to be isn’t confidence, it’s all a stageplay. Love does not choose skin color, weight, height, face shape, eyes, clothing style, voice, hair, and abilities. Love takes more than just what meets the eyes, it goes beyond petty and unrealistic preferences. The beautiful kind of love is majestic, ethereal, and indescribable — it knows no adjectives. If you ever find a partner who makes you ashamed of who you are, drop that person right away. He/she surely doesn’t know what love is. 

Always keep this in mind: You don’t have to change yourself who sets you apart from who you truly are just for the love you feel towards someone. If you ever have to change, improve, and develop, it should always be for your happiness and never for someone else.  “Love is blind” is a negative notion on this matter. Instead think of it this way, when you close your eyes or choose not to hear and still feel at home in the arms of a particular person, that’s when you’ll realize that true love will accept you for who you are even if it means not meeting societal standards. 

by Ryke Leigh Douglas

Does True Love Really Wait?

Love is the most beautiful thing in the world. It makes us soft, inspired, driven, and alive. There are different forms of love — familial, friendly, and romantic. But for today, let’s talk about the latter. Romantic love is the kind of love we share with a partner whom we look forward to being with every single day of our lives. That one person we’re willing to go through ups and downs with. We can see little kids crushing on their playmates, teens sporting new looks for someone they admire on campus, adults proposing to their girlfriends and boyfriends, and old couples feeding each other ice cream at the park. Love is a lovely sight indeed.

However, not everyone is quite lucky with this thing. We can be the best versions of ourselves already, at the peak of our success, ticked everything off from our bucket list, but we still haven’t found our heart’s missing half. We often hear others cheering us up and saying, “It’s okay because we all have our different timings. True love can wait. Just be patient and it will come” but it’s not a comforting thing to hear. Sometimes, listening to that advice causes us to end up growing old alone. No, we shouldn’t rush love but love works in magically mysterious ways and it doesn’t come around just by sitting in the corner. If we want to be in love, we have to get out there, enjoy life, make the most out of everything, and who knows? We might bump into our future life partners or realize that they’ve been with us all along!

Love is formed out of a moment we share with another person. It doesn’t come up knocking on our doors saying, “Hi stranger! We were made for each other and I’m here now”. No, it doesn’t work like that. We can’t help falling in love inside one minute with a total stranger if in that single minute we weren’t afraid to show who we truly are.  Does true love wait? Hmm maybe it can, but it’s best to be worked on.

by Ryke Leigh Douglas