PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY TRACY TUCHOLSKI | DAILY KENT STATER

Credit: DKS Editors

Love is a feeling. Love is an emotion. Love is, according to sophomore finance major Kayla Maher, “skippin’ a heartbeat and butterflies in the stomach.”

On this Valentine’s Day, students discuss what love is, and, in fact, what love is not.

Love is blind

Everyone has heard the saying, but what does it really mean? Does love cause people to ignore what they do not want to see?

Maher said she thinks love isn’t being blind to your significant other’s faults, but it is loving them in spite of those faults.

“I think you can notice things about one another that bother you,” she said. “But, it’s loving those things that makes what you have love.”

Danielle Horning, sophomore pre-nursing major, said she thinks there are other factors of a relationship that one can be blind to other than each other’s faults.

“The relationship could be based on sex or money, not on love,” she said, “Or people can be blinded by love, like when someone they really think they love treats them so badly, and they always forgive them.”

Senior marketing major Bret Simon said that to him, love is definitely blind, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“When you love someone, and I mean you really love them, and you live with them and share your whole life together, it is easy to think that person will never hurt you and that they are flawless,” he said. “Living together is like the ultimate test, make it or break it. It’s really that simple. You have to either become blind to their faults, or learn to love them in spite. And let me tell you, ‘learn to love’ is not a phrase that I’m fond of. I want to love to begin with.”

True love?

Love could be sharing lunch with the cutie to the left in the fifth grade. Can love just blossom or does it involve more than swapping Juicy Juice at the lunch table?

Maher said she believes ‘puppy love’ isn’t just something that happens to young kids.

“It’s like that love at first sight, honeymoon stage, using pet names and feeding each other,” Maher said. “I think you can have puppy love at 25 just like you can at 10 or 15.”

Horning said she agrees puppy love isn’t just for kids, but she’s not entirely sure it qualifies as actual love or just a crush.

“I don’t think that you can be too young for love,” she said. “I think puppy love is loving someone and liking them enough to be in a relationship with them, but it’s not quite true love.”

Simon said no matter the age or the location, love is love, and when it truly is, you can feel it.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that you know when you’re in love,” he said. “And if you haven’t felt it, then you probably haven’t been there yet. Even when you’re young and you realize you like someone, that’s still love. Just budlings.”

Happily every after — life after the fairy tale

Ever wonder what happens to the prince and princess after they ride off into the sunset? Hollywood has made falling in love the end-all of all happy endings.

“You can be happy forever,” Horning said. “I definitely think that’s possible. There can be times and parts that are hard, but when you have those hard times, that’s where you grow through communication.”

Horning said although she believes in love, she’s just not sure she can buy into the whole fairy-tale ending.

“Life isn’t perfect,” she said. “I don’t think something that great could just happen. Like love at first sight? OK, maybe it happens every now and then, but I don’t think I could ever see it happening to me.”

Maher said she is a strong believer in the real deal based in a real-life fairy tale lived by a friend of hers.

“I definitely think love exists,” she said. “I know some people who saw each other on the streets of New York City after being apart for five years. She was wearing the hat he gave her the last day they saw each other before she moved to New York City. It was the first time she had worn the hat since he gave it to her, and they ended up getting married. Now, come on. That’s like total proof that love is out there.”

Simon said he knows love is out there, but it’s not as easy as the movies make it look.

“You can’t just sit around waiting for the love of your life to come knocking on your door,” he said. “Falling in love is the easy part, but I think finding the person is the hardest. I would like to believe that there is someone out there for everyone, but circumstances cause stress. It’s possible that your chance has already passed you by.”

Contact features reporter

Courtney Cook at [email protected].