Finding Love on a College Campus

High school seniors graduate, and the summer ends. Prospective freshmen must now say their tearful goodbyes and head off to the unknown world of college, wondering what their future will hold for them. What classes will I enjoy? What will I choose for a major? But more importantly – will I find my true love here? According to that infamous British comedy, love, actually, is all around. It’s in your Intro to Finance class, and in the local dive bar off-campus. It’s at football games and in coffee shops. Love is an intangible feeling that we’re all born with, whether we like it or not.

College students find love on campus (photo via Andrew Flavin)
On her first day at the University of Pennsylvania, Elizabeth Banks met Max Handelman. Ten years later, Handelman proposed unexpectedly. “He said that after 10 years, he owed it to me to completely surprise me,” Elizabeth Banks said. The couple sealed the deal by reading letters from their first year of dating in college in lieu of vows.
Dictionary.com will tell you love is a “profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.” But when you really stop to think about it, love is undefined. It’s a simple feeling of euphoria. Happiness. Togetherness. It seems like such a strange phenomena that people can connect with such strong bonds. We become so close with each other, with lovers, with friends, it can seem odd we are related only by species. These relationships actually strengthen our sense of selves, and it’s the connections we make along the way that will keep us going.
Love is leaving a note on your boyfriend’s pillow before you leave for a weekend trip, or understanding when he needs to study for an exam and needs total privacy. It’s waiting patiently outside the dressing room while your girlfriend tries on every dress in the store. Love is paying for dinner when your boyfriend has had a rough day, despite that the cash in your wallet is your last. Love is patience, kindness, trust, and simplicity. It’s commitment, celebration, and sometimes compromising.
How do you hold on to this feeling once you’ve found it? It’s a fact of life that relationships deteriorate over time, as humans are bound to make mistakes, but it almost always will lead us to something wonderful. Love never comes when we seek it out. It is patient and can be hiding until it decides you’re ready. Then, and only then, will it come to find you.
Those who embrace it find more than just peace of mind and something familiar. They will find themselves, and more importantly, a kind of happiness that can’t be paralleled by anything else. There is something incredible about this feeling, and it should not be taken for granted. Love should be cherished. Love, even when hidden in dorm rooms and computer labs, is all around.
via InStyle and Curbed