I always end up falling in love with my friends

You do it too, I’m sure. At least I hope you do and you should, because it’s a great experience. When you have built up so much admiration, respect, and care for a person, can you truly and realistically help but to fall in love with them? Even just a little? I guess it depends on how you define it. I’m not talking about a sexual or perverted type of love. A selfish or jealous one. I’m not talking about the kind of love that’s associated with weddings and children. Not any of those. Maybe another person wouldn’t say “falling in love,” but rather just that they care for or simply love them. But if it’s a real friendship, one that’s spanned across mountainous moments or treacherously long ones, it cannot be plainly “just” or “simple”. A deep friendship, can be the loveliest love of all. And to be in love, you first have to fall.

You cannot automatically love a person, even if you really wanted to. It’s the kind of thing that takes a little bit of time or a stronger dose of magic. You fall in love with a person’s qualities, the way they think, their mannerisms, the way they excel, or are passionate about something. These things are not immediate. I’m sure love at first sight doesn’t exist, for that’s just lust— which I do not recommend attaching to friends. But to fall in love with them? That’s something you can keep doing over and over and over again.

Say you meet this really cool guy.. we’ll name him Ted. You don’t really know Ted yet, so you’re not so all-the-way-sure of him. But each time you hang around, you get to know him better and better. He’s been through some serious shit in life, yet he’s still so optimistic. He’s so generous which always takes you by surprise, because you’ve never met another person so selfless. He’s tenatious and incredibly self motivated, which inspires you. And before you know it, just like that, you’ve begun to fall in love with your friend, Ted.

I know, from a social viewpoint it might be construed as a girly, romantic, silly, and perhaps dramatic way of looking at it. But it is absolutely true. And once you realize how good it feels to fall deeper and deeper in love with your friends, it makes it even better, because you realize that love doesn’t have to be some complicated, far-fetched thing. You can have it all the time, in your every day, with anyone you stumble upon- if you so choose to.

Love doesn’t have to be categorized into boxes, limited to a singular way of thinking, or reserved for a specific person or time that may never come. Love can be free and flowy. Love can be anything, anytime, with anyone- if you let it. And if you do, you’ll be a much happier person for it.

Love is never ending either. It has waves and pitfalls sure, just like anything else. It might even have cracks or large holes where it once imploded. Maybe a large field where opposing forces once battled. Casualties that couldn’t be saved in the end, even with all the therapies and surgeries underwent. Those loves always know how to stick to the back of your throat. But they are still loves, after all.

The best loves are the ones that keep developing. Ted gets a promotion, and you’re so incredibly proud and happy for him. Ted falls into a different type of love and gets married and you know that no one deserves a happiness and family more than he. Ted has kids that feel like your own kids and you know you would give them a kidney in a heartbeat. Maybe Ted wakes up and wants a new life, so he puts on his swim cap and hurls himself as hard and as fast as he can into a new profession or direction and wow, your love for Ted magnifies, and magnifies, and magnifies.

People are beautiful, frienships are beautiful, they are rare and special and important. And they deserve true love.

So you see, it’s not such a weird thought after all. It’s love. It’s profound and beautiful and boundless and I hope you don’t guard it so much. You can let it loose. Let it wrap around the arms your friends. Allow it transform them into family. So yeah, I always end up falling in love with my friends. And I think it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.