are you playing those love games with me;;

I feel like it's high time for another rant, since I've got a good idea about what to rant about right now. And what's today's topic? Why, it's a little thing called love.

Love [luhv] Show IPA noun, verb, loved, lov⋅ing.
–noun
a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person.

A question that I've always seen in surveys is this: "Have you ever been in love?" What do I usually put? I put no, that I haven't. But then I notice everyone - my brothers, my 12-year-old cousins, my best friends - saying that they have, when it's a lie.

Just because you have a "girlfriend" or "boyfriend" for two months does not mean that you are in love. Most people don't experience love until they're past 16, thanks. That's why the majority of posts on FML go along the lines of, "Today, the two-year-old boy I was babysitting told me he loved me. I'm 18. That's the first boy to say that. FML," and not "Today, the love of my life as of two months dumped me. I'm 14. FML." Because, really. Can you picture yourself spending the rest of your life with a boy who has no job and is still living with his parents?

Add being halfway through puberty to that fine equation, and you've got a strong answer. No. So why, may I ask, do so many teenagers claim to be in love? These same teenagers end up either A) running off to get married, and end up divorcing less than a year later, B) killing themselves, C) killing their families, or D) getting pregnant (if it is a heterosexual couple, I mean).

So for those of you who, under the age of 18, claim to have been in love, did you ever...

A) Picture yourself marrying the person?
B) Picture yourself starting a family with that person?
C) Picture yourself actually aging with this person?
D) Feel a rush of butterflies in your stomach when you first said you loved them (or even thought it)?

Or did you just start "going out" with that cute guy in your science class? Did you tell him "ILY" before going to bed, without feeling nervous in your stomach when he didn't respond with "ILY" back to you?

The only people I actually do say "ILY" to are my friends, because I do love them. No, I'm not in love with them, but I love them as my friends, my sisters, my true family.

When I do fall in love, I'll spell out those three words, or even say them for real. But only when I know it's real, and not a false middle/high school relationship.

As Tinsley Carmichael said in the It Girl book Infamous, "Don't start thinking about prom with this guy you just met. You really do need to slow down and just have fun...Of course you can kiss him. Just don't start, you know, picking out your ring yet...Break a few hearts before letting yours get broken again" (von Ziegesar 104).