Love—it’s a force that can drive a person to the brink of madness. It has the power to start families and end them, ignite wars, destroy lives, and transform the world as we know it. Yet, at the same time, love can inspire hope and bring about positive change, giving us something to look forward to.

For me, love has been the greatest teacher in life. It has revealed the complexities of the world and the depths of human nature, showing me how capable we are of both immense beauty and unimaginable cruelty. It’s taught me that we, as individuals, are both the cause of and the solution to our own suffering. Love has introduced me to a deeper understanding of myself.

But how can one single emotion encompass both peace and hatred, beauty and monstrosity? The answer is simple: Love is perfect. In its perfection, it contains everything—both the good and the bad, both the serene and the chaotic. It is the only force in the universe that is truly flawless, holding within it all the possibilities for both joy and pain.

Love is powerful because it is ever-changing. It can grow stronger or fade away. Love is what we make of it, but whether or not it turns out to be what we hoped for is a completely different story. Understanding love and what it allows for might just be the most important lesson anyone can learn.

At the end of the day, love is something every person craves. Even sociopaths, in their own way, seek to be loved—if only by themselves. Love is what drives us to act, to create change, to become different versions of ourselves. I say “different” and not “better” because love doesn’t always make us better people. Sometimes, it makes us worse.

In life, we love many things—objects, experiences, memories—but no love is as profound as the love we feel for another human being. To understand why, we must first understand what love truly is.

Love isn’t just an emotion; it’s a transformative force. It changes us because love itself is a change. We love our friends and family because they have made our lives better. They didn’t just add to our lives—they altered them. They showed us new perspectives and a different version of reality. They changed what it means for us to be alive.

Then, there’s romantic love—the most sought-after and, at the same time, the most dangerous type of love. Romantic love has the power to change a person so profoundly that, after falling in love, they might no longer recognize themselves.

The problem is that love doesn’t come with a clear definition. We experience it, but most of us never fully understand it. The issue starts with the expectations we bring into love. We enter relationships with preconceived notions, believing we already know what love is, rather than being open to learning what it could be.

The first time I fell in love, I fell into this very trap. Like countless others, I believed I knew what it meant to be in love, what it meant to give someone your whole heart. That belief, misguided as it was, ultimately led to the downfall of the relationship, as it has for so many others.

You can’t learn anything new if you go in thinking you already know it all—and love, above all, is a learning experience. I entered love expecting it to last forever. When the relationship ended, I convinced myself that lasting love wasn’t possible. But with time, I came to realize that it is possible to love someone forever—just not in the way I had imagined.

Looking back, I’ve had to rethink my understanding of love. The truth is, you can love someone forever. But it won’t look the way you thought it would. It’s not about staying in love forever in the romantic sense. It’s about the lasting impact that person has had on your life.

Is it our culture that ruins love for so many, or is it the overwhelming emotions we feel that define love for us? Either way, our misunderstanding of love often leads to its undoing.

So, how is it possible to love someone forever? The answer is surprisingly simple: If someone changes your life deeply enough, if they shape the person you become in a way that you love, then you will always love them for that. Even if they leave, even if they move on or fall in love with someone else, that love remains. It’s a part of you now.

Sometimes, the people who change us for the better are also the ones we hate, and no, we don’t love them. But if someone you once loved changed your life in such a profound way, you will love them forever—whether you want to or not. It doesn’t matter if they’ve moved on, married someone else, or even become a different person entirely. You will always love them because they have shaped a part of who you are.

This doesn’t mean you can’t fall in love with someone else. You can move on, start a family, and be incredibly happy with another person. But a part of you will never fully let go of that love, because letting go would mean letting go of a part of yourself. And that’s not something you can easily do.

It’s both sad and beautiful, really—how one person can leave such an indelible mark on another. It tells us more about life, love, and human nature than anything else ever could. And yes, it may bring tears to your eyes from time to time, but without those tears, even our happiest moments would lose their meaning.