Love Untamed

Like most late nineties babies, my first crush was on Troy Bolton, followed by the boy who could get a perfect score playing guitar hero on expert. I longed to be Hilary Duff from A Cinderella Story, drew hearts around Nick on my Jonas Brothers poster, and belted "You Belong with Me" each night until my Taylor Swift CD was scratched beyond repair.

I was a sucker for love, but what young girl isn’t?

Love is laced into the seams through which this country operates. You see it in dramas, sitcoms, action movies, and even the commercials in between. It’s on the radio, in our phones, and ultimately a major part of American culture.

I remember crying tears of joy the first time I told my high school boyfriend I loved him—like I had finally found my other half. When we ultimately broke up in college, I struggled to feel complete single. That’s the problem with love being such a prominent focal point of our society, if our lives are not moving forward towards wedding bells it is easy to feel like something is missing.

Now don’t get me wrong, relationships are wonderful, but whether you are actively dating or committed to Netflix and the couch, love is already inside you. If binge watching The Bachelor has taught me anything, it’s that life is a lot more exciting not spent waiting around for a rose. You have the choice—to see love as a single entity within us that is only filled through partnership or to love wildly, wonderfully, and untamed from the spaces in between.

Love All, Love Often

To love untamed is to recognize that the love we have occupies a higher register than what is set aside for one person. As much as I still fan girl over Zac Efron, it was not High School Musical that first sparked this emotion in me. I felt love at 17 in the paw of my childhood hero laying her head to final rest in my lap. I saw love at 14 driving his Jeep Wrangler away and leaving the bedroom beside mine as boxes. I wiped away love as the last sloppy forehead kiss my grandmother would ever share. For love was in me before I knew all else but the sound of my own mother’s heartbeat from within.

I say all this not as the single girl on Valentine’s Day but as someone who is tired of feeling sorry for the things I do not have. Instead, I choose to fall in love with worn down tennis shoes, that five dollar bill I forgot about in my back pocket, burnt quesadillas, and the blanket in our living room for when I fall asleep on the couch.

So I challenge you—if you are to only love one thing, let it be this life, and please never stop.