“Love comforteth like sunshine after rain,” William Shakespeare said.
“All you need is love,” John Lennon said.
“Love is never having to say ‘I Love You,’” Brak from Space Ghost said.
Love is an age-old concept filled with hearts, flowers and chocolates. It could be a feeling, a song or a dance. But what does love mean to college students?
“That’s a hard question,” University freshman Ashlee Garcia said. “To love someone is to listen to them and be their friend and always be there for them.”
It varies from situation to situation.
“(To love someone is) to be a more complete person for it,” junior Aidan Holpuch said.
It is unconditional.
“You depend on them, and you can count on them regardless of what you do,” junior Greg Barkett said.
It is the driving force of life.
“Without it, you can’t live,” Finnish exchange student Heidi Alajoki said. “There is a closeness, a warmth. All the people you love … your family, God. Everyone’s deepest desire is to feel loved.”
Students say there is a difference between loving someone and being in love with someone.
Sophomore Lauren Chan’s idea of love is “caring about someone more then you care about yourself.” She said the difference between loving someone and being in love with someone is that being in love entails becoming emotionally involved on a much deeper level.
“(Being in love) goes along with love, but pushes it further … the person becomes emotionally ingrained in your life,” she said.
Freshman Alex Crowder feels that in order to be in love with someone, “You have to be content with yourself.
“You have to love yourself before you can have that bursting loving feeling for someone else,” she said.
That “bursting loving feeling” makes love energizing.
“(Love is) a force and energy that is infinite and expands as you interact with the world and people with a mutual respect,” Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Alliance Issues Coordinator Suzi Steffen said.
Love is ultimately people’s link to other human beings.
“(It is) something genderless, a really strong connection you feel to another human being,” University student Kathlene McGraw said.
Senior Nilda Brooklyn agrees.
“It’s someone who can laugh at all of your jokes … even when they’re not funny,” she said.
For others, love can be described as what they’ve seen in movies or on television.
“Love is when Thumper is all flustered in ‘Bambi,’” University student Gregory Campbell said. “It’s when you become a raging doofus, but you don’t mind because you love someone so much.”