I've always been a hopeless romantic, never once has that faltered. My mum knows that too - I'm the girl who has always believed in love. Valentine's Day is that single day when love gets all the attention and whilst some hate it, I love it. Even though I've only ever got 2 or 3 proper Valentines in my life (when I was a kid!), I still celebrate love in all it's forms. So this Valentine's, rather than give you a simple post with date night looks or the like, I thought I'd reach out find the love stories in your life that help us to continue believing in love and it's beauty.
*Side note: I pretty much cried at all these stories, some of them I've known about for so long but love hearing again. The amount of love that's around my life is crazy.*
The Search
"Everyone wants love. Everyone. Even if they are too proud to admit it. I mean it's everywhere, isn't it? It's in every lyric of every song we listen to, in every chapter of every book we ever read, in all the poems and even in hate. Hate is purely love in a negative, so when we feel it, it is love. Some of us want that typical high school sweetheart easy stuff, others the hard, unrequited, passion-filled mess. Whatever kind it is, we all search for it."
- me, an excerpt of something I'm writing...
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Young Love & Loss
Love. It’s something that is so open to interpretation. It makes me cry one day and feel the most amazing way the next. Like, you know that one person, that one freaking person, who you just love. You can’t imagine your life without them. Someone who just makes you feel infinite. The idea of that person makes you go crazy. I’ve liked very few people in life. I guess you could say it’s because i’m “picky.” I fell for someone once - hard. I guess you could say he was the first person who made me feel that way, like a princess. He wrote me something once that I thought told me the type of way he felt. it went something like this:
“So maybe I'm in over my head or something, but no one's ever been there for me like you, no ones cared for me like you. I’ve never felt for a girl like I do for you... I don’t really do the feelings thing a lot but you’re really special to me. I think every part about you is perfect and the feeling I get around you is crazy... You’re beautiful, sweet, caring, and probably one of the only people I actually wanna be around... like I said maybe I'm just trippin, but if I’m trippin I don’t wanna stop falling."
Little things like that get my heart going. It is just an amazing, simple way to make me feel so special.
Living overseas is especially hard when wanting to be in a good stable relationship. I’m only in one country for a year and a half, so it’s hard for me to find someone for the long term, it's always down to a “shorter” relationship. Long story short, I found one guy, one who sadly didn’t live in the same country. It makes me sad to think about it today that it didn’t work out when it really was something I wanted.
Through all these different paths. I found some amazing people along the way; someone who I look up to as an older sister, someone who I didn’t even know was out in this amazing world. I would love to say who, but this is one important relationship I wanna keep all to myself. She lives in a country that is full of amazing people just like her. Unfortunately I left that country, but my heart remains attached to her.
Love doesn’t just happen between guys and girls, but also creates and leads to amazing friendships. I’ve learned a variety of things from being in some relationships; never let anyone treat you less than what you deserve, know your worth, put yourself before anyone, and to know that if it’s really meant to be... it will genuinely happen. Love is something amazing once you’ve found it. Be yourself and let them see the real you. I promise everything happens for a good reason.
- Katie, the sweetest girl who is wiser beyond her years.
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From Friendship To Love
I didn't like him when I first met him, thought he was an idiot to be honest. Then after he joined our group of friends, I found out he liked me but I didn't know him well. So I told him that and pretty much friendzoned him, yet apparently he made it his mission to become a better friend and worm his way in.
We started hanging out and talking more at sixth form, then made plans to study together at each other's houses, where he tried to sneak in downtime to nap or watch movies to get closer. This continued for nearly 6 months until one day he was "drawing patterns" with his fingers over my arms and back, which I let him do. The next day, I panicked and told him he couldn't do that again as that's "not what best friends do".
Yet three weeks later, we were back in my room, watching a movie, snuggled together and he was doing it again. The next thing I know, we were kissing. We spent the following week mucking around without telling anyone, which inevitably led me to asking, "So what are we doing?" We agreed we were together.
Fast forward nearly 7 years and he's still drawing those patterns on me and it's one of my favourite things.
(Side note: We got together during the main week of exams and both of us didn't do great in the ones we had meant to be studying for together.)
- My best friend Tasha on her best friend turned boyfriend. Or as he will now be known, king of getting out of the friendzone.
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My Rest Stop
I always feel as though I'm running. Running away from who I used to be. Towards what I know I can be. I was so tired until we met. With you, I don't need to run. My legs fold, my shoulders relax and my breath eases. I have never felt so comfortable. Comfortable with who I am, where I am and what I'm doing. I have never felt so free. I didn't see the boarders of our love until I was denied my visa. I was set off to run again. To run away from you, and at the same time, to find you. I feel like I'm always running and you, are my rest stop.
- Mehr, the unexpected one who didn't expect love but found it.
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Sisters
She was standing there with her mother and brother. Long, curly black hair; baby face, big beautiful eyes and enviously long lashes. I had seen photos of her before, but she was different in person. Better. Her brother adored her, and talked about her all the time. But she was a student at this school and immediately, my guard was up. I has a funny feeling when dealing with people who went to the same high school as me. I remember all the cliques, catfights, drama and I take a while to warm up to them. She was in a younger class, and we never crossed paths at school, but that feeling still kept me from being too friendly.
Cut to a few weeks later, we were laughing over pizza, potato wedges and wine. She was unexpectedly funny, silly and a little spoilt in a charming Oscar Wilde sort of way. She was also innocent and reminded me of my sister. It was easy to talk to her, and hang out in a city that had, for me, lost its charm. We forced each other to go around town and drink wine. We forced each other to be fancy and sit around in hotels - there was really nothing else to do.
And a couple of years later, yes it has been a couple, I'm far away from her but nothing has changed. I hope she never changes because I'd trust her with my deepest darkest secrets. She is my sister, and now I have two annoying little girls to tell me what to do and how to do it.
How lucky am I to have met Emily.
- Sandali, about me, and yes I cried.
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Thoughts On Love
In order to be loved, you need to love yourself first.
Falling in love is easy, staying in love is the real test.
Find someone who makes you excited to wake up tomorrow.
If there is no trust, there is no hope.
Love fearlessly, endlessly.
- Jamila, the lover of love.
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The Newlyweds
Everyone knows the story. Boy meets girls, they fall in love and they get married. But not many people go into what happens in between!
We met when I had just turned 18. I had never had a boyfriend before and I was keen to start dating as many guy as I could (lol). I never thought the first guy I met out in Melbourne would be the love of my life.
From the moment I laid eyes on Shane, he was all consuming. I had never been so attracted to anyone in my life and after we first kissed, I knew it was so, so much more than just sexual chemistry. At the time, I didn't know this. He was the first guy I had ever felt like this with so I didn't think much of it.
From then on, we moved very fast. We went on our first day the next day, another date the day after and the third date the day after that. We were inseparable. I met his family and went bed shopping with his mum within a week.
Being so young, this was obviously a lot and what we had was too much for either of us to process at the time. We loved each other too hard, too soon and it took over our lives in a way we weren't ready for just yet. It was big love, the kind you find when you meet the one you're supposed to marry. At the time, the thought of marriage was too overwhelming. So we took a 'break'. During this time we tried to date other people, yet we were constantly messaging and meeting up. It got to a point where we were both seeing each other more than we were seeing the people we were 'dating'... So after a couple of months of denial, we decided to jump into it. All of nothing. We went through the best and the worst, our families became one and we were pretty much inseparable.
We moved in together, started looking for houses together etc. And it was like we finally started living for the first time. As cheesy as it is, it was like our lives were meant to be one and it wasn't complete apart. Everything was suddenly so easy! We got engaged, got two dogs, bought a house and everything fell into place.
On our wedding day, I felt the same feeling I felt on the dance floor the first time we met! And I now know that it wasn't just lust or the tequila, it was love. I didn't understand it 6 years ago, but after everything we have been through, I finally understand it now. The kinda love you feel when you meet your person. The first man and last man I ever fell in love with is now my husband!
- Thisara, who just got married to Shane two weeks ago. I was lucky enough to be there to celebrate them and I can attest to the beautiful love they have.
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Shock
To be on the same page with someone, to be mentally, emotionally, physically, and wholeheartedly on the same wavelength with a person, is like feeling an electric shock. That little buzz that hits your system and gives you that extra touch of life. When you're able to feel that touch of electricity, it's like a voltage so high that it vibrates and burns you into someone better, it brings you to life from the inside out; a conversation with them, a call, a word from this human being is more compelling and influential than even Beyoncé serenading you... that's when you know. No form of material or money will compare to that electricity because love, it knows no bounds. It's magic; so impressive and energetic, overpowering any other form of electricity.
I met my best friend Nabil about five years ago during Thanksgiving, when he came over to our apartment to tutor one of my girlfriends. My girl, Misti, informed me of her visit since it was only the two of us over the holidays and she wanted to be responsible, not that I took much notice to the extra person coming over. In an apartment of usually four college girls, people came and went. Plus I was a secluded sophomore with my head buried in books. So when Nabil came over, I wore the "OK" disguise; no make-up, baggy clothes, messy hair - the "I'm not trying to impress anyone" vibe. I was totally myself when he came over, didn't try to put on a façade because I was most likely going to stay in my room and I totally wasn't going to be interested in a computer science tutor.
(Yes, I picturing a geeky man, with glasses, with an "I'm too cool" attitude, a "god" of computer science and all knowledge, trying to show off.)
A knock at my door and voice telling me to come say hi pulled me out of my bubble. And there he was, exactly as I pictured him; big glasses, baggy denim, a watch on his wrist bigger than his face, a hat on backwards, totally full of himself. But even with all that, I felt the shock. That wave of electricity that could knock me off my feet. Something told me he was more than meets the eye.
Curiosity got the better of me. The nagging my girls had given me before to "get out and live", "explore than more than just books" became my new mantra. I opened up. The rest of that evening I spent in the living room, convinced my notes on 21st Century history notes could wait an extra day. I listened and observed this man in front me; a well learned Indonesian man who knew every fact and figure from stocks and profit, to rhythm and DJ'ing. I even heard the story about how he was robbed and beaten up, but still managed a smile when the police came (there's a picture to prove it.) I was mesmerised, swallowed whole, hypnotised by this man.
I felt this way all within the first night and I hadn't even properly introduced myself yet. It was fireworks. I felt shocks, I gained blooming booms of light. I see it now as Physics, all it's rules and laws, F=m*a, all that energy, happening in just a spark. It was the shock of my life.
Today, Nabil is more than my best friend, my confidant, my partner. He is my electric shock that sparks my way for better. Five years later, I still feel giggly, butterflied in my stomach, nervous, sweating hands, dilated pupils, a strong beating heart. All the rhythms a girl feels when they see their first crush, that newness and exhilaration. I still feel that with nabil, whether it be when we're right next to each other or talking on the phone, miles away. The shock is so strong to go through any type of medium and it gets stronger each and every day.
- Upandha, who had her nose in the books with no care in the world and found love right in front her nose, when she was completely herself.
____________________________________________________
And there you have it, real love stories that reminded me that love is so blissfully wonderful It can be found anywhere, even when you least expect it. It comes in the best and worst of times. It can be found and can be lost, but it's memory everlasting. It can find us when we are looking and when we aren't. It can be completely all consuming but isn't that beautiful?
As a hopeless romantic forever, this for me was such an incredible experience. To get to know the love stories from people that I love and have known for so long, and to understand how deeply these stories impacted their lives. Even when I'm part of that - I mean, one of these stories is literally about me. I expected my girl to write about her boyfriend, but she wrote about gaining me as a sister. To know that even I am a source of love, non-romantically too, is so beautiful. I only hope that one day I can love someone in the ways I've read above and that they too could feel the same about me.
Simply put, I love Love.
On this Valentine's Day, I hope that you are loved and adored by anyone; your significant other, your family, your friends, whoever it may be. And I hope you share that love with them too.
All my love,
Emily xx
_____________________________________________________
From Friendship To Love
I didn't like him when I first met him, thought he was an idiot to be honest. Then after he joined our group of friends, I found out he liked me but I didn't know him well. So I told him that and pretty much friendzoned him, yet apparently he made it his mission to become a better friend and worm his way in.
We started hanging out and talking more at sixth form, then made plans to study together at each other's houses, where he tried to sneak in downtime to nap or watch movies to get closer. This continued for nearly 6 months until one day he was "drawing patterns" with his fingers over my arms and back, which I let him do. The next day, I panicked and told him he couldn't do that again as that's "not what best friends do".
Yet three weeks later, we were back in my room, watching a movie, snuggled together and he was doing it again. The next thing I know, we were kissing. We spent the following week mucking around without telling anyone, which inevitably led me to asking, "So what are we doing?" We agreed we were together.
Fast forward nearly 7 years and he's still drawing those patterns on me and it's one of my favourite things.
(Side note: We got together during the main week of exams and both of us didn't do great in the ones we had meant to be studying for together.)
- My best friend Tasha on her best friend turned boyfriend. Or as he will now be known, king of getting out of the friendzone.
___________________________________________________________________
My Rest Stop
I always feel as though I'm running. Running away from who I used to be. Towards what I know I can be. I was so tired until we met. With you, I don't need to run. My legs fold, my shoulders relax and my breath eases. I have never felt so comfortable. Comfortable with who I am, where I am and what I'm doing. I have never felt so free. I didn't see the boarders of our love until I was denied my visa. I was set off to run again. To run away from you, and at the same time, to find you. I feel like I'm always running and you, are my rest stop.
- Mehr, the unexpected one who didn't expect love but found it.
____________________________________________________
Sisters
She was standing there with her mother and brother. Long, curly black hair; baby face, big beautiful eyes and enviously long lashes. I had seen photos of her before, but she was different in person. Better. Her brother adored her, and talked about her all the time. But she was a student at this school and immediately, my guard was up. I has a funny feeling when dealing with people who went to the same high school as me. I remember all the cliques, catfights, drama and I take a while to warm up to them. She was in a younger class, and we never crossed paths at school, but that feeling still kept me from being too friendly.
Cut to a few weeks later, we were laughing over pizza, potato wedges and wine. She was unexpectedly funny, silly and a little spoilt in a charming Oscar Wilde sort of way. She was also innocent and reminded me of my sister. It was easy to talk to her, and hang out in a city that had, for me, lost its charm. We forced each other to go around town and drink wine. We forced each other to be fancy and sit around in hotels - there was really nothing else to do.
And a couple of years later, yes it has been a couple, I'm far away from her but nothing has changed. I hope she never changes because I'd trust her with my deepest darkest secrets. She is my sister, and now I have two annoying little girls to tell me what to do and how to do it.
How lucky am I to have met Emily.
- Sandali, about me, and yes I cried.
______________________________________________________
Thoughts On Love
In order to be loved, you need to love yourself first.
Falling in love is easy, staying in love is the real test.
Find someone who makes you excited to wake up tomorrow.
If there is no trust, there is no hope.
Love fearlessly, endlessly.
- Jamila, the lover of love.
_____________________________________________________
The Newlyweds
Everyone knows the story. Boy meets girls, they fall in love and they get married. But not many people go into what happens in between!
We met when I had just turned 18. I had never had a boyfriend before and I was keen to start dating as many guy as I could (lol). I never thought the first guy I met out in Melbourne would be the love of my life.
From the moment I laid eyes on Shane, he was all consuming. I had never been so attracted to anyone in my life and after we first kissed, I knew it was so, so much more than just sexual chemistry. At the time, I didn't know this. He was the first guy I had ever felt like this with so I didn't think much of it.
From then on, we moved very fast. We went on our first day the next day, another date the day after and the third date the day after that. We were inseparable. I met his family and went bed shopping with his mum within a week.
Being so young, this was obviously a lot and what we had was too much for either of us to process at the time. We loved each other too hard, too soon and it took over our lives in a way we weren't ready for just yet. It was big love, the kind you find when you meet the one you're supposed to marry. At the time, the thought of marriage was too overwhelming. So we took a 'break'. During this time we tried to date other people, yet we were constantly messaging and meeting up. It got to a point where we were both seeing each other more than we were seeing the people we were 'dating'... So after a couple of months of denial, we decided to jump into it. All of nothing. We went through the best and the worst, our families became one and we were pretty much inseparable.
We moved in together, started looking for houses together etc. And it was like we finally started living for the first time. As cheesy as it is, it was like our lives were meant to be one and it wasn't complete apart. Everything was suddenly so easy! We got engaged, got two dogs, bought a house and everything fell into place.
On our wedding day, I felt the same feeling I felt on the dance floor the first time we met! And I now know that it wasn't just lust or the tequila, it was love. I didn't understand it 6 years ago, but after everything we have been through, I finally understand it now. The kinda love you feel when you meet your person. The first man and last man I ever fell in love with is now my husband!
- Thisara, who just got married to Shane two weeks ago. I was lucky enough to be there to celebrate them and I can attest to the beautiful love they have.
____________________________________________________
Shock
To be on the same page with someone, to be mentally, emotionally, physically, and wholeheartedly on the same wavelength with a person, is like feeling an electric shock. That little buzz that hits your system and gives you that extra touch of life. When you're able to feel that touch of electricity, it's like a voltage so high that it vibrates and burns you into someone better, it brings you to life from the inside out; a conversation with them, a call, a word from this human being is more compelling and influential than even Beyoncé serenading you... that's when you know. No form of material or money will compare to that electricity because love, it knows no bounds. It's magic; so impressive and energetic, overpowering any other form of electricity.
I met my best friend Nabil about five years ago during Thanksgiving, when he came over to our apartment to tutor one of my girlfriends. My girl, Misti, informed me of her visit since it was only the two of us over the holidays and she wanted to be responsible, not that I took much notice to the extra person coming over. In an apartment of usually four college girls, people came and went. Plus I was a secluded sophomore with my head buried in books. So when Nabil came over, I wore the "OK" disguise; no make-up, baggy clothes, messy hair - the "I'm not trying to impress anyone" vibe. I was totally myself when he came over, didn't try to put on a façade because I was most likely going to stay in my room and I totally wasn't going to be interested in a computer science tutor.
(Yes, I picturing a geeky man, with glasses, with an "I'm too cool" attitude, a "god" of computer science and all knowledge, trying to show off.)
A knock at my door and voice telling me to come say hi pulled me out of my bubble. And there he was, exactly as I pictured him; big glasses, baggy denim, a watch on his wrist bigger than his face, a hat on backwards, totally full of himself. But even with all that, I felt the shock. That wave of electricity that could knock me off my feet. Something told me he was more than meets the eye.
Curiosity got the better of me. The nagging my girls had given me before to "get out and live", "explore than more than just books" became my new mantra. I opened up. The rest of that evening I spent in the living room, convinced my notes on 21st Century history notes could wait an extra day. I listened and observed this man in front me; a well learned Indonesian man who knew every fact and figure from stocks and profit, to rhythm and DJ'ing. I even heard the story about how he was robbed and beaten up, but still managed a smile when the police came (there's a picture to prove it.) I was mesmerised, swallowed whole, hypnotised by this man.
I felt this way all within the first night and I hadn't even properly introduced myself yet. It was fireworks. I felt shocks, I gained blooming booms of light. I see it now as Physics, all it's rules and laws, F=m*a, all that energy, happening in just a spark. It was the shock of my life.
Today, Nabil is more than my best friend, my confidant, my partner. He is my electric shock that sparks my way for better. Five years later, I still feel giggly, butterflied in my stomach, nervous, sweating hands, dilated pupils, a strong beating heart. All the rhythms a girl feels when they see their first crush, that newness and exhilaration. I still feel that with nabil, whether it be when we're right next to each other or talking on the phone, miles away. The shock is so strong to go through any type of medium and it gets stronger each and every day.
- Upandha, who had her nose in the books with no care in the world and found love right in front her nose, when she was completely herself.
____________________________________________________
And there you have it, real love stories that reminded me that love is so blissfully wonderful It can be found anywhere, even when you least expect it. It comes in the best and worst of times. It can be found and can be lost, but it's memory everlasting. It can find us when we are looking and when we aren't. It can be completely all consuming but isn't that beautiful?
As a hopeless romantic forever, this for me was such an incredible experience. To get to know the love stories from people that I love and have known for so long, and to understand how deeply these stories impacted their lives. Even when I'm part of that - I mean, one of these stories is literally about me. I expected my girl to write about her boyfriend, but she wrote about gaining me as a sister. To know that even I am a source of love, non-romantically too, is so beautiful. I only hope that one day I can love someone in the ways I've read above and that they too could feel the same about me.
Simply put, I love Love.
On this Valentine's Day, I hope that you are loved and adored by anyone; your significant other, your family, your friends, whoever it may be. And I hope you share that love with them too.
All my love,
Emily xx
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