I think my heart is pretty hard to win over (but once it has been won over, the guy has it pretty golden because I don’t go away no matter how many dirty socks he stuffs in my face). Before it has been won over though, I am quite responsive to romance (not to say I wouldn’t be responsive to romance after being won over … but I digress).

As tough/independent/fierce as I appear sometimes, I am completely at peace with the the fact that I am a fairly typical pretty-in-pink girl, because after all, I’m just a girl. I like my flowers, fancy dinners, carefully orchestrated intricate evening outings, the typical sweep-me-off-my-feet puhzazz. In other words, I am a romantic at heart, and I like the boys who romance me.

But romance is not love. And what a funny day it was for both. I heard four, count them, FOUR, accounts of people mulling over in their minds the difference between “loving” and “being in love” with someone, and the difference between romantic love versus platonic love.

What is the difference? I love my mom. I love my dad. I love my friend(s). But when am I really “in love”? How would we know we were in love if we don’t even know what it is? How much does a romantic connection (both emotional-romantic and the princess-romance) factor into our defining the boundary between “love” and “in love”?

It is sad in a way to think that my love can be bought with flowers and chocolates and diamond rings (not really, but come on, it does play a role - 10% maybe). It makes me feel like love can be superficial, though my hope is that true love transcends the material possessions to the emotional possessions of the heart. But when does loving someone stop at a deep care, and when does it reach the 100-point hammer drop of being head-over-heels IN LOVE?

And do we ever truly find that person? And how often do we simply stop at “good enough”?