When is it considered love? The question can linger on people’s minds as they watch couples exchange pleasantries in the hallways and see pictures of them on Instagram with captions displaying their affection. Whether you feel happiness or disgust depends on who you are. But when is the point where you can say you “love” someone?

As a teenager, a majority of us have been in a situation where you have strong romantic feelings for another person. Whether that feeling is one sided or not, the word ‘love’ is in the back of our minds, and you start to question if the feelings you have toward this person are love.

Let’s start with the basics. What even is love? Love is a very complex emotion and idea. Love is the other person being your comfort, your home, your safe haven. Love is when you both have a level of understanding, trust and respect for each other. Love is looking at your significant other and knowing everything is going to be okay. But most importantly, love is what you make out of it, and each person has their own meaning of it. Really sappy, I apologize. But love is sappy.

Like any opinions that are formulated, experience, or lack of, plays a big part. People who have more experience may know how they feel when they love someone since they may have gotten close or had that feeling before. In contrast, people without as much experience enter unfamiliar territory, which can be terrifying. From an outsider’s point of view, a person with more experience knows more about the idea of love, and someone with less have more to learn. But one thing that is true for most people, is that love can play with one’s thoughts.

Whether you like to admit it or not, when you like someone, at first, nothing is wrong with anything they say or do. Oh, they play soccer? I am going to every one of their games. They sing really well? They will probably sell out stadiums one day. They’re a natural rule bender? It’s good that they have their own views. In our minds, we realize their good qualities and sometimes ignore the not so great ones. And everyone has not so great qualities about them, but when you like someone, those qualities are pushed aside That’s what happens in love.

In this society, the word “love” gets pushed around a lot. For some people, the idea of loving someone is a huge deal, and for others, it isn’t Many teenagers throw this word around, not really knowing the true meaning it holds. But love is a concept with many factors that can blend together.

We’ve all read romantic stories in books, or heard the story of how our relatives got together with their spouses. There comes a point when one starts to wonder when love will come into their life or if it ever will. So when is it considered love? Only experience will help you find your own definition of love, because at the end of the day, love is what you think it is, and only you can make the decision with whether you love someone or not.