Young, Dumb, and in Love

Written by: Candice Dalton

Photography by: Candice Dalton

Modeled by: Izzy Hill, Halle Kory, Sarah Jeon, Sophia Lins, Jase Harris, & Edmund Albert-Rambo

The experience of love is incomparable. People often argue that love is not some complex thing, but I beg to differ. There is such complexity to the interconnection of two people. The feeling of fear, attachment, and devotion running through your veins all at once, there’s nothing quite like it. Growing up, watching romantic comedies is what made me a hopeless romantic. To have a boy stand outside your window with a boom box or to have someone you’ve loved since childhood, it was all so thrilling and desirable. As I’ve grown up, I’ve learned that rom-coms are not exactly cookie-cutter versions of real life, but rather the fairytale-like moments of a partnership.

While there is such beauty to all love, there is nothing like experiencing love in your youth. Graduating high school and then starting your career or college is terrifying all in itself. As a student, you are trying to navigate living in a new home, making friends, and taking on an entirely new workload. You are expected to know what to do with your life right off the bat, but most people don’t. Your youth is supposed to be the era of discovering yourself–your interests, hobbies, passions–the possibilities for your life are so unknown and it feels so daunting with the pace of life. But, once you meet that person, the one who slows everything down, the one who makes life a little less scary, things become a little more clear.

Finding this person, the one who expands your horizons, it’s so thrilling yet so terrifying. You become so intertwined with them, you devote so much energy and time, you put all your trust into them. Loving someone at such a young age gives you so much opportunity to discover new things about yourself as well as another person. There is nothing like having the person you love alongside you, to get to experience life with one another. When you are both trying to navigate life and self-discovery, it’s a challenge, but you navigate the challenge with your person. A quote that represents love beautifully is one spoken by Robin Williams, in “Good Will Hunting”, he speaks to his mentee about the experience of a soulmate, “Someone who challenges you in every way. Who takes you places, opens things up for you. A soul-mate”. I originally heard this quote in a Mac Miller song, “Soulmate”, and it is so beautifully spoken. Being in love truly is a challenge. Love is not some simplistic feeling, emotion, or action, it is a big mess of learning, feeling, and vulnerability. No one knows what to make of love, but we shrink it down and try to fit it into the same box as everyone else, as if every love will be the same, but no two loves are the same, so why do we try to compare our love to others? 

The make-believe world of the internet has created a new facade of love and dating culture. Media culture has pushed the idea of love fitting into one box, that every one love should look the same, but this simply is not the case. I have seen video after video of relationship stigmas. People preach that your relationship should look a certain way or else your relationship is deemed toxic. The unrealistic expectations and ideas being spewed about love and what it should look like has created the idea that “romance is dead” and this is simply not true. It is the unrealistic expectations and stigmas around relationships that circulate the media and cause many relationships to fail. Comparison is truly the killer of joy. Taking a step back from the media is important. It’s important to remember that every relationship is different and what is posted on social media is only the cookie-cutter version of a relationship. A partnership is between two people, not the media, so as long as you are happy, what other people are doing should not be a factor in your relationship. 

Getting to experience this love and passion in your youth is something that should not be taken for granted and living in the moment is very important. I hope everyone is able to experience this love at one point in their youth, because there is truly nothing like it.