Love, the strongest human emotion. A natural feeling developed over time for someone, something, or some place. As essential to life it is for a human to feel love, as well as express it, do U.S. citizens love for the wrong reasons? I am a firm believer in true love. However, I feel as though U.S. society is so materialistic, that a large majority of the citizens love somebody based off of their ability to be a provider. Too many people start their reason for loving someone with “They have done so much for me.” I do not mean in the sense of money, although that is a factor. U.S. citizens tend to love someone based off of their ability to provide mental support, happiness, and conversation. Not off of their core personality traits, that of which provide no direct benefit to the partner.
Many wealthy people search for love and look for things such as financial stability. A large population in the U.S. plans to marry for the sole purpose of financial support. They want to find somebody they can build a family with, in a suburb where they can put their money together to retire as early as possible. So many marriages fail because the factor of not loving your partner for who they are, instead of what they provide, eventually catches up to the relationship.
For people from impoverished communities who grew up with nothing, the slightest gesture of generosity can spark feelings of love. Growing up in a cold world, it can seem like the smallest light is the brightest sun. Not having anything growing up, it makes it feel like nothing around you can last. Including love, which is why people from impoverished neighborhoods have are hard time being able to keep up in a love life, besides all the struggles, it’s hard to imagine anything being around forever. Your instinct is going to tell you to keep around what is beneficial to you. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
I fell in love this year. My partner was always and still is the embodiment of unconditional selfless love. Me, being a broken schizophrenic person from a traumatic childhood of growing up in an impoverished neighborhood was unable to return that same type of love back. She gave her all, including a chunk of herself to me. I was selfish and betrayed her trust. She gave me a will to live and a want to fight my battles. However, that is not all there is to her in any way. Her ability to turn negatives to positive, and create a wonderland of joy around her is special to say the least. She is beyond intelligent and elegant. She will always be just as lovely without providing for me, and my biggest regret in life is not taking the time to know more about her. If you have a partner, think about why you love them, and not just about what they do for you.
