Oscar Cortez
Staff Writer
Photo By: Oscar Cortez
This was arguably the hardest piece of writing I’ve ever written. No essay assignment or research paper can even compare to it. How can one even define love let alone explain its significance and worth? Difficult as it is, I will try anyway.
There are some who may say that love is not worth the pain that comes with it, but I would say that the pursuit of love is worth it. The pain cannot compare to the ultimate reward that love has to offer. But before I can even begin on that, I need to address love’s polar opposite, its antithesis that causes some people to stay away from and even swear off of love entirely.
This feeling—whether we call it pain, heartache, or sorrow—is the reason for why some might turn away from love. It creates an empty pit in your stomach that pulls at and tightens the strings of your heart. It is unpleasant at best and painful at worst. It is this feeling that has caused some hearts to turn away from love and is the reason why I write in love’s defense. And, though I could never say I know the feeling of pain that is unique to each person, I empathize. Love can be painful and painful too often. To cause someone to completely reject love, that pain must have been unbearable indeed.
But love isn’t about the pain. Love is about that feeling of indestructibility when you are next to that special someone. Anyone who has felt even a vestige of it can attest to the sense of euphoria that erupts from within. The heart beats palpably, the mind swims in revelry and all vision is funneled into a tunnel that sees nothing but one beautiful object. While understandably an electric reaction of neurons and hormonal surges, it is nevertheless a feeling that can’t be matched. No indulgence can mimic that feeling and like any other positive sensory experience; once felt, we seek it constantly until we find it again and only that proverbial “significant other” can truly fulfill it.
That first experience of love, no matter how small, whets the appetite and we look again and again for a feeling so sharp.
So, even in the face of love’s painful twin, that feeling of heartbreak and loss, why should we continue to believe in love?
If you were to ask me, I suppose it is because love is hope. A hope that someday you will find that person who makes you feel enormous and inestimable, like you’re on top of the world. No wonder Jack flew on the bow of the Titanic. Though there is no easy way to find love, and the search is difficult, the reward is worth everything. Travel the Via Dolorosa on your way to Via Ambrosia.
Lastly, it is worth noting that on our journey between the valley of misery and the peak of bliss, we have likely been both the subject and the cause of love’s pain. In the end, I cannot think how, pain and all, we could give up on looking for love. Because then we would not be seeing at all.
The writer is an English major who feels that his defense of love is inadequate at best but is nevertheless straight from the heart.