Love or Lust?

What is love? Is it that first true high school romance that blossoms and then sours after ten long years of sacrifice or is it the string of one-night stands that follow and you can’t quite get out of your mind?

The old classic movies with Warren Beatty and Paul Newman can distort a young girl’s expectations. The reality of what happens to love that most ever experience seems more like Marlon Brando in ‘Street Car named Desire’. The passion may still be there for a moment, but for the most part is anything but desire after a year into the relationship.

Why does this happen? How does this happen? Is it that two people may just not be made for each other and don’t know how to exist on their own, or is it that love just seems to dissipate over time no matter who you are with?

There once was a young girl the age of 16 who was full of dreams of romance and happily ever after. Her family and friends encouraged her not to get so involved at such a young age. But she was in ‘love’. He pursued her and convinced her that life was going to be good and he would love her forever and her confidence soared. Eventually as the years came and gone, his confidence surpassed and hers seemed to disappear. Excuses were made and expectaions were lowered. Afterall, ‘love’ isn’t easy.

Ten years. Ten years of making excuses, supporting and sticking up for this man that held the perfect future, if only she could be patient enough to see his potential. This was all vanished within hours. It only took a few hours for him to pack up and leave. He was going to start his self-proclaimed ‘new’ life when hers had just come to a screeching halt. She wasn’t given a choice.

What happened to the romance? What happened to happily ever after and all of those promises? She had sacrificed her independence and friends to spend more time with him. One day, those friends had moved on and she had only him. Now he decides this isn’t what he wants out of life. He wants to explore and see what life had to offer him.

What is a girl to do? Go out and have fun is what they told her. You need to just get out there and move on. He obviously wasn’t who you were meant to be with. So she did. She moved on through many one-night stands. This is what an independent woman does, right?

It was exciting and each new guy seemed so fun and they all said that they would give her the world. Life would be different with them. Or would it?

People say that everything happened for a reason. Well, surely one of these new guys held the key to future happiness and ever after. Why else would the memories be so romantic and passionate?

Is true love measured in years or the number of times you get butterflies from memories of those brief encounters that pass by only for a few moments in a lifetime? Most people would say that there is a difference between love and lust. Love takes the form of time invested and lust is only the physical. Think about the first time you ever told someone else that you ‘loved’ them. Can you be positive that it wasn’t somewhat weighted on the ‘lust’ factor?

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