Finding Love Within The People You Surround Yourself With
March 3rd, 2025
Writer: Nicolina Kane
Editor: Sophia Wohl
I have realized throughout my time in college that I have a misperceived view on love. I feel as a teenage girl, I am so quick to associate love in a romantic way, rather than any other association. This has led me to several spiraling days.
Hearing the words “I love you” in movies or on Instagram posts between happy couples always brought a smile to my face, yet made me envious. I fear for the future. I fear if I will ever find “love’, or my idea of it anyway.
My perception has slowly started to change, as I found this bond within the friends I have made. My best friends always end a call with an “ I love you” or when I leave my house in the morning before a long day, screaming out “I love you” to my family. These actions all seemed to fall into place. Into a routine.
My sister and I call every night before bed to say “I love you" .Yet this is an act that I assumed I would never hear or achieve in a romantic lens. This made me realize that this is not something my friends, family and I just say out of habit, but an act I truly feel.
This is a sentence I once feared and envied. Love was at my fingertips this whole time and I was too naive to realize it.
When I am having a stressful day, my best friend asks me to go on a walk around campus. She does not need to say the “L word” for her to prove that she unapologetically loves me.
Love does not need to solely be coined as a romantic term. Love does not need to be a term at all. Love is constantly around me. I love my friends. I love my family. I love my morning coffee. I love my teachers. I love my campus. I love my dance team. I love love.
I found love within the people I surround myself with.
