OK, I've only got about half an hour before it's time to go home, so I'm going to have to summarize. I'll start with this, though: Danny252, you can't give up on love at age 13! Come on! You shouldn't even be worried about that stuff yet! You're in the Golden Age of Gaming - worry about girls in about three years!
There are many kinds of love, but it's fairly obvious that the question concerns everyone's favorite kind, so we'll worry about the love of your parents, love of ice cream, and love of the sound of a Merlin at full throttle at some other time.
What's often referred to (and marketed) as love nowadays is little more than a cheap imitation of it. Yeah, that might make me sound like a crusty old geezer, but it's true. Pop culture would have you believe that love is, well, sex, and that's about it. When you find the right person, you'll both fall madly in love with each other, and all will be sunshine and rainbows until the end of time. If you base your ideas about love on anything you see on TV or in movies, or hear in a popular song, you're not likely to recognize the real thing when it stops by.
Love takes work. It doesn't just happen (that's infatuation and/or lust, not love), and it isn't always easy. You have to make a conscious decision to love someone, and if you're really committed to them, that includes loving them when they've really pissed you off, not running off and looking for the next best thing when something doesn't go right. This is, of course, a two-way street. If the other party is not willing to put forth this kind of effort, guess what: it ain't love, and you're better off dissolving the relationship.
As you may be able to tell, I don't believe in the concept of "soulmates." I think that's an inherently destructive idea that can lead to all sorts of unhealthy perceptions of one's partner and can cause big problems during rough times.
Well, I'm out of time, and I'd rather not hang out at work longer than I have to on a Friday evening. It'll be interesting to see where this thread goes...
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Today is a good day for pie.
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