Describe the Feeling of Love
August Writing Prompt- Day Five
"Describe the feeling of love." Really? I roll my eyes. This is what we're supposed to write about? My English teacher just promised us a great writing prompt that we could all spend the class working on. This is what we get? Like I could ever describe the feeling of love. Why not ask us to describe the feeling of hatred? That I could do.
You know that feeling in your gut that goes along with hating someone? The pure disgust you feel every time they open their mouth. Oh and that sensation that goes through you when you think about them, like nails on a chalkboard, it makes you cringe. Hatred I've got down pat, but love?
I look around this classroom at the phony people scribbling away on their papers, describing the feeling of love. What a joke! They all are probably describing that sickening thing they call love as they grope each other in the hallways and then go behind each other's backs to grope other people in private. If that's love, count me out. No thank you. Or those "I love you so much babe<3"s on Instagram bios, followed by the "Happy Three Weeks!" I mean, are we really supposed to believe that's love?
Sure, I say "I love you," to my parents, my little brother, and my best friends, but that's not what they want us to write about. I do care about my parents, and my little brother is the most important person in the world to me, but what makes that love? I assume I love my best friends but do I really? I mean it's just a word right? Who gets to say that what I feel for them is love?
I know what I should do, I should just write down that love is the feeling of butterflies in your stomach and warmth in your heart and all that jazz but I don't buy that. The only butterflies in my stomach I get are the mutant ones with teeth that claw at my insides because of my anxiety. As far as the warmth in my heart? Well that's just bullshit, hearts just pump blood and keep us alive, our brain is where we "feel" everything.
Finally, I put pen to paper, write my name, and get started describing the feeling of love.
"I know this isn't what anyone wants to hear but if love exists, I believe that it is an affliction, not a blessing. Love isn't pretty or kind, love stings, love burns, it mutilates you. You love someone and you think that makes you two special, like you've found something so amazing that it can't possibly end in disaster, but it's inevitable. Being in love doesn't stop you from dying, and then you leave behind people who loved you and now what? They're screwed. You'll never come back and all those warm feelings of love have now become icy shards of pain. Also, love doesn't stop you from being a shitty person and just because you love someone doesn't mean they aren't going to leave you or hurt you, because they will. And then you're screwed, too. You cry and say, "He swore he loved me!" or, "I can't believe she would do this, I loved her," as if somehow being in love makes you immune to the world being a shitty place and people being monsters.
Besides, is being in love even that great? I mean you have this person that you have to constantly work to impress. You change yourself to make them happy, even if you don't realize you're doing it. What's so great about that? Your hormones go up, your inhibitions go down. You start putting your goals on hold in order to be with the person you love. That doesn't sound like a good thing to me.
So maybe people don't want to acknowledge that the feeling of love is misery, but it is. In my opinion, if love even exists, I want no part of it. It's just another way society controls us. They make us think we need love to be happy, when in reality, love is the thing that causes unhappiness."
I take a deep breath, set my pen down, and turn my paper over. I hand it in when the bell rings with the rest of the students and hope no one ever asks me to describe the feeling of love again.
