Wang: The lost art of love

The Silent Minority

Love doesn’t work in real life the way it does in the movies. Years ago we all experienced that stage of believing couples stayed together forever, that every husband and wife was happy and that every mother and father was content. We began to realize that was not the case as we grew from elementary schoolers, to middle schoolers, to high schoolers and now finally to college students. Over the course of our lives we have experienced, to some extent, breakups. If our parents were not divorced, we knew someone whose parents were. If we did not personally deal with the end of a relationship, we knew people who have.

Even as young adults, the topic of love remains a touchy subject. We have seen, more often than not, “love” bring about pain as opposed to happiness. We very rarely see romantic relationships in middle and high school work out. The drama and the tears and the tension that come with breakups are things that have come to be a defining aspect of adolescent life. Because of that, we seem to have come to the conclusion that long term relationships in college aren’t worth it. One night stands, quick hook ups and friends with benefits are apparently the way to go. These years are for gaining “experience” and living life free of commitment.

But is that really the case? Is this hookup culture we have established really something we can be satisfied with? Granted we were wrong to think love and romance would be as peachy as we believed when we were children, but that does not mean love is something not to be pursued.

Faint as it may be, we all have that nostalgic memory of wanting to be in love, of wanting to spend the rest of our lives growing old with that special someone. In a culture that pushes independence and individuality as virtues, we have come to shun the conservative and idealistic ways of thinking that marriage is for everyone. We now look down on those who fall in love, who chase dreams. We see them as being unreasonable, unrealistic and childish.

But how is that any different from those working toward a better education? All of us here are investing thousands of dollars for the sake of a better future. We are aiming for that high paying job to be rich, successful and famous. We want to live in that comfortable house and to drive that fancy car. We want to be able to eat well and treat ourselves on holidays. We are all doing this for our financial well being, but what about our emotional wellbeing? Society has dictated that being rich is something worth working for while love, a key component to our emotional and spiritual wellness, is just an option that can be postponed until it is convenient to pursue. Is that not at least a little bit disheartening to know we have been raised to discard the dream of love for the sake of the dream of monetary success?

I am not trying to imply that education and finance are not important. They are as much a necessity as love. A balance needs to be struck, as currently the age we live in is tipped in favor of one side far more than the other. Life is too short to put love on hold.

Larry Wang is a first-year studying accounting. He’s a complete dork whose idea of a fun Friday night involves “Smash Bros” and anime marathons.