By Ruth Ogechi Udeh, Summer Times Staff Writer
Humans are driven by emotions. Having been here for more than 3 weeks, we have friends and foes. Some have decided to take their friendship to another level. This is expected. As teenagers, we are mostly controlled by our emotions. You do not expect to put a group of teenagers, whose hormones are on the verge, together in a place without expecting sparks.
As we know, some of us have already formed attachments with others because, as Anju Chenaux-Repond, 16, from Hong Kong said, “Everyone is very nice so it is easy to start liking other people.”
If there is one thing every relationship aspires to, it is love. Love is a mutual feeling. “Love is a feeling that you have when you and appreciate and care about a person as much as you care about yourself,” said Cristina Aguilar, 15, from Miami.
Most people have positive views on love. It is considered the greatest feeling of all times and the best thing that can ever happen to a person. “Love is when you would be willing to do anything for those you care about,” said Anju. “It is something that you can’t describe unless you experience it yourself. It is something that once you have experienced it, you would understand what it is about. It is probably one of the best things on earth because to love someone is just a positive experience.”
With the summer session so short, some people have taken this opportunity to find themselves a significant other. Though they seem to be happy for now, they share the same fear. “I am worried about the fact that I will get too attached and we will only be here for a short time,” said Paula Rodriguez, 15, from Texas. “He is going off to another country and I will be staying here because I live here. I will probably not get to see him again.”
Happiness is an outcome of loving and being loved; this feeling can also be the death of another. Anju emphasizes that “Being in love, you have got to trust someone and sometimes when you trust, you might get let down. Whenever you love someone, you are making yourself vulnerable. There is a chance that your significant other might not be as truthful to you as you are to them, so you are always putting yourself out there and that is one of the things you have to do when you love someone.”
Love is a feeling that drives one crazy and makes a person do the unimaginable. Loving someone would mean having to make sacrifices. Cristina said that you would not have as much time for your friends and things you are usually used to doing.
Anju believes that “If you ever want to be in a romantic relationship, you got to first love yourself. Before you can share love or ask someone to love you, you got to make sure that you are happy with who you are and you are happy with everything you have done. Once you have learnt to love yourself, then you can spread the love to other people.”