The Ice Queen of My Brain

Love

WARNING: This is not your typical cutesy Valentine's Day message

Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "wow, she's the last person I ever expected to do a Valentine's Day post." That isn't wrong of you to think. After all, Romance isn't exactly my forte. In fact, I didn't even know I was going to write this until about five minutes ago. 

See, if I had taken the time to actually plan this out, I would've come up with a hook and an intro and all that stuff authors do. But, since I very obviously didn't, let's get right to it!

If you're a typical human being, your internal reaction to the title of this post is probably something like this:

However, if you're either me or the kind of person who would actually read my stories and maybe even enjoy them, I'm guessing that your reaction looks more like this:

The Wattpad Community, not unlike the world as a whole, can be quite divided when it comes to the subject of romance, both in writing and otherwise. Even within the genre, there are numerous different opinions on how romance should be written, and what types of romance are most eagerly received by audiences across this lovely planet we call Earth. 

Today, I'm going to share my rather unconventional opinion on this fiercely debated subject. 

Actually, no. No, I'm not. 

For the first two hundred and thirty words of this post (thank you, convenient, built-in Wattpad word counter), I have been going on and on about ROMANCE, while the title of this chapter is LOVE. 

And I'll bet none of you even noticed it!

Those of you who've read my most recent article for TRUTH Magazine know that I'm pretty big on the difference between these two terms that the world has so unfortunately smushed into one. What really got me thinking about this again was a seemingly meaningless incident that happened yesterday. 

I was in the car, getting ready for an hour long drive, when my dad turned on the Indian radio. Usually, the colorful songs, ads, and jokes are nothing more than background noise to me. Yes, songs, ads, and jokes. For those of you who aren't already aware of this fact, we Indians are strange people. We like to mix things up. We're loud and crazy, but also extreme nerds. We say that melodramatic Indian TV shows are stupid, but secretly cry over them at night. 

Also, apparently, we say "Happy Valentine's Day." 

This doesn't sound important at all, but hearing the anchor on this Indian radio station wish all of his listeners a happy Valentine's Day after playing several upbeat songs back to back made me curious. Until yesterday, I had never heard a person even mention the significance of the fourteenth of February to anyone other than his or her significant other. 

This spurred more thoughts in my mind. 

No one judges you for saying "Merry Christmas." 

What makes "Happy Valentine's Day" so different? 

It was then that I realized that the answer lay in one of my deepest frustrations. 

Valentine's Day is a celebration of love, that modern society has turned into a celebration of romance. 

You can't love your adorable baby brother, your cat, your dog, your fish, your mom, or your best friend. 

Because, somehow, that's "weird."

By teaching ourselves and those around us that we can only love one person at a time, we limit the amount of love that the world can share. 

And that's the last thing we need. 

This Valentine's Day, let someone else know how much you love them. Make your mom breakfast, walk your dog, or give your younger sibling that king size candy bar. 

Because that's not weird. 

That's what love is really all about. 

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone.