What Love is

Funny how everything in your world seems to catch up to you, all the things you needed to think about but kept putting off, seem to come to you when your kid sister comes to your bedroom and asks you what love is. When she first asked me I wanted to tell her no, not to ever say she was in love until she was married. Too bad I can’t take my own advice.1

Instead I told her it was when you really cared about someone. I don’t think I lied to her, but I didn’t tell her the truth. I couldn’t have. I don’t know what love is either. I’ve told my boyfriend so many times before that I loved him, but just recently I realized that I didn’t know what love was. I couldn’t tell him I loved him if I didn’t know what love was.2

Love can only be used, and only really be meant if the other person can tell you that they love you back. Love is something that shouldn’t be abused. It shouldn’t be something that’s needed, or even wanted, it’s just something that should happen.3

She’s way too young to know of such emotions. She’s only a year younger than I, but I still think she’s too young. I don’t want her to get hurt. I’m afraid if she were to one day tell me that she’s fallen in love, I’ll have to hold myself back from screaming. She can’t handle the pain that accompanies love. She can’t handle when a guy tells her he loves her, and then breaks her heart mere months later. She’s just way too young!4

I’m afraid she’ll fall into my footsteps. I know most people don’t worry about this with sisters, but I worry about it with her. I’ve made too many mistakes in my lifetime for her to follow along with me. I love her, and I’ll always be there to guide her when she needs it, but I’ll give her the advice I now realize I should have taken. She doesn’t need to go through the pain I’ve been through.5

She’s smart. I don’t think she’s told that very often, and I think I should start telling her that more often. She knows the difference between good and bad, right and wrong. She knows exactly what to do in certain situations. She knows when to back off, but also when to be there. She speaks her mind, never holding anything back, even when sometimes you wish she would.6

She’s not popular, but she doesn’t need to be. She’s got the world going for her and that’s all that counts. I realize that she knows everything she needs to know, and I’m not worried about her friends. I’ve met a few of them, and most of them I like. Heck, some I think are better influences on her than I’ll ever be. But as I said before, she’s smart like that.7

As I look at that girl everyday, everyday I start to wish I could see life more like she does. I wish I could just have the energy she has, running outside in the freezing cold without a jacket on, but not really caring. I wish I could realize, like she does, that guy’s aren’t everything. You don’t need them around, and you shouldn’t feel like you have to have one. I guess that’s where I went wrong. That’s how I met my current boyfriend, and that’s a lot of things began to happen.8

My little sister can see right past the lies I tell about my boyfriend. She can tell every time I say things are great, when in all honesty there not. They haven’t been great for a while, and she’s the only one who noticed that, not even I could see that. I’m not sure if I like that about her, or just hate the fact that deep down I know she’s right when she says we need to break up.9

I guess that’s all I’ll ever have to say about her. She’s a great kid, with so much talent, so much imagination, and a heart bigger and stronger than anybody I’ll ever meet in my life. I love her with all my heart and soul, and the next time she asks what love is, I’m going to give her the right definition. Love is how I feel about her, and love is something that can’t be expressed in words, only emotion. 10