Does Love Have an Age Limit?

How I love asking people that question. The answers are so broad; they can go from one extreme to the other. Some people think being in love “properly” is the months leading up to the smitten boyfriend (or girlfriend; whatever you’re into) popping the question. Therefore in their opinion, love does not begin until the age of 35 (the average age people are married by in Ireland). Others, however, have copped on to my backhanded question and simply tell me straight out that yes, I am too young to have experienced love. Little do they know, I have. Twice.

It’s quite a magical thing isn’t it, being in love. You can’t compare it to any other feeling out there. It’s never just a case of “Ooh we’ve been together five months and eleven days, I must be in love”. No. It’s not just an emotion; love, it’s a physical feeling too. The only way I can describe it is, it’s like a current of electricity tingling in your chest, pulsing through every inch of your body, forcing a smile on your face or a breath to be taken. Sometimes both.

A lot of people have told me they feel what is known as “butterflies” in their stomachs when they first have feelings for someone. This sensation can so often be mistaken as love. However, getting butterflies is basically your minds way of saying “aaaaahhhhh!”  This mash-up of nerves and excitement sometimes leads to people thinking their heart has been broken when the relationship ends because they were “so in love, I swear”. Darling trust me, if your heart was broken you wouldn’t be making statuses about it on Facebook every two hours.

To be totally honest, I find it hard to name one major sign that you’re in love. In my opinion, it’s more about the little gestures than the big ones. Unless it’s marriage, obviously.

For example, remembering they like two spoons of sugar in their coffee. Or putting a duvet over them if they fall asleep watching a movie. Crying because you miss them and they stand there hugging you telling you you’ll see them soon. On the other hand, people do a lot of stupid things that they think is a sign of love:

1.       Breakfast in Bed:  Aww isn’t that cute? Not really. It’s actually a health hazard. Are you trying to choke her on that piece of toast?

2.       Giving him/her your jacket:  This makes me cringe. I mean, when they said they were cold, how do you know they wanted your jacket? Maybe their legs were cold. Not so quick to take off your trousers are you.

3.       Vouchers just don’t cut it:  Think you’re so thoughtful giving him a voucher for Jack Jones? Or a Debenhams voucher for the Mrs? You’re not. That’s an indirect way of saying “Yes I know you’d like something in there… But I can’t be arsed so go find it yourself. Happy 10^th anniversary”. Feel bad now?

 

 

Maybe I’m alone in this theory, but I think young love can sometimes be the strongest and the most real. I’m clearly biased you say? I resent that. Believe me, I’m well aware that most couples my age (or younger) are clueless as to what a real relationship entails. And they can’t tell their hormones apart from their hearts.

But to be fair, a small amount of teens actually take their relationships seriously. When you put it into perspective, most teenage romances last up to what, two years? Two and a half? Some adults don’t even wait four months and they’re already engaged. So you’re trying to tell me that it’s okay for a couple to say they’re in love after two months because they’re over the age of thirty, and yet people my age (16, by the way) could be together two years but they can’t possibly be in love because they’re “too young” to know what love is. You know what I say to that? Bullshit.

Young adults (Yes, I refer to myself as that) these days have the technology that allows them to speak and be in contact with their boyfriend/girlfriend twenty four hours a day. For example, a typical weekend day for a teenage relationship would involve the following: Texting in the morning before meeting up, spending the whole day as Siamese twins, texting the minute they part, and maybe a phone call before bed to end the day. Then the whole process starts over again in the morning. People underestimate how much time we teenagers can spend with our high-school sweetheart, both physically (by that I mean in person) and virtually. It quite literally is two years of constant communication. Compare that to a few dates here and there over a few months. I think you’ll find proof that it is possible for young love to be in fact stronger than “real love”. Whatever that is.

If you have read all of my strongly opinionated blog then you will have come to the same conclusion as I: No, love does not have an age limit. Those that insist it does either haven’t experienced it themselves yet and are jealous of well, me, or they are just stubborn feckers and no matter how many times I prove them wrong they will always be right. C’est la vie.