This is a good question. I believe that love is real and I believe there are different kinds of love. I can say with no uncertainty that I love my parents and they love me. I have friends who love me and I love them as well. What does love for them mean to me? It means that I care deeply about what happens to them. If they are sad, I feel sad for them. When they're in pain, I hurt too. If they needed a kidney, I would give it to them. If they were gone from my life I would grieve deeply.

Then there's romantic love. For me, I know that I'm "in love" when I feel excited at the thought of seeing the other person. When something interesting happens in my life, I think about telling them and their reaction to it. When I think about them not being in my life anymore, I feel scared and sad. Being close to them just feels "right." It's more than chemistry. It's an intangible connection.

This is what love feels like to me... in the words of Walt Whitman:

O YOU whom I often and silently come where you are, that I may be with you;
As I walk by your side, or sit near, or remain in the same room with you,
Little you know the subtle electric fire that for your sake is playing within me.

I have been in love twice in my life... and just because it ended, it doesn't mean it wasn't real. If a tree dies, does that mean it never existed? I don't believe that love must last forever in order to be real.

One of the men I was in love with is now my best friend. I still love him, but not in the same way. I don't love him less; I just love him differently. I believe that I will love him forever and I believe he will love me forever. I know that I could trust him with my life.

I believe that romantic love -- when it doesn't go away and when it doesn't change to platonic love -- can grow into something even stronger, and that's the kind of love I haven't had in my life yet. My parents have been married for 43 years and they are still in love. I think that kind of love is rare and elusive, but that doesn't stop me from striving for a love like that.