Love Sick

Model: Marielle MacDonald

Imagine, after a strained relationship finally turns sour, your lover shows up, uninvited, to your home and proceeds to blast music through a comically large boombox for the whole neighborhood to hear (Say Anything). Or, even better, you're a high schooler and your college-aged, step-brother decides to pursue you romantically (Clueless. Both of these scenarios would probably end in a restraining order and a therapy appointment; however, under the Hollywood haze, these gestures are idolized as artifacts of true romance. In my pre-teen age, I marveled at the epic highs and lows of passion, desire, and impulse, playing out on the upper echelon of media: Rom-Coms. While these movies continue to provide a familiar comfort, even up to this day, they have left myself and many others with detrimental ideas of Love. To love is to be obsessed, to plan an entire wedding with someone who just casually smiled at me in a coffee shop, to put my entire life aside and wait for this picture-perfect romance. Another toxic aspect of Love in the media is that, a majority of the time, it is only romantic love being highlighted. This is in no way my attempt to create a loveless world, but to highlight the beautiful reality of obtainable love, both romantic and otherwise. When I have had an awful day and I glance up at the sky to notice a beautiful sunset melting into the night sky and I am overcome with serenity. That's love. When I naturally grew apart from my childhood best friend, but everytime May 27 rolls around I think of them. That's also love. Love is something so present and possible for each and every one of us in everything that we are, no movie theater required.