Many high school couples claim they have found “love.” Too often, females are sure they were mutually in love, but their male partner was clearly in it for the physical activity. Or usually, females aren’t really in love, they just play with innocent hearts in order to feel superior (a.k.a. she gets around). This isn’t always the case, but I hear about it so often that I wonder, is there any love in high school?

It seems so artificial to “be in love” in high school that I’ve begun to lose interest.

Over-confident “bros” feel superior when they use their attractive attributes to reel in the women like fish, breaking their hearts and throwing their poor broken souls back into the water one by one. They both become ready to make the same mistake again in order to solve the puzzle of their empty hearts. Then there exists the plethora of promiscuous femmes who prey on weak, unconfident boys in school, using their looks and confidence to quickly give their victim the feeling that they have become confident and pleasing to the eye themselves. Whichever situation it is, it all ends the same: in heartbreak and confusion.

Although rare, there ARE some couples that seem to last forever. Always seen in the hallway, these pairs are inseparable! Everyone knows at least one of these couples. How do they do it? How can they possibly last so long, especially in high school with all the drama, distractions, and stress? How can it seem that these are the worst couples in all of mankind, but stand the test of time so much longer than other couples?

The only conclusion to these questions is simply love. But I, among many others in high school, find love to be a never-ending complicated story much like the Harry Potter series. In this point of the story, I’m left with the question: what is love?

According to Wikipedia.com, (although a seemingly unreliable source, this article quickly disproves the common stigma) love has a strong chemical basis in human beings. In fact, when a couple is in a steady relationship, the body has a higher level of oxytocin and vasopressin. These chemicals lead to attachment, which is a common form of love. Attraction causes the chemicals dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, and the nerve growth factor to be released. This leads to love! So when you hear couples say “we’ve got chemistry,” they aren’t kidding. And of course, testosterone and estrogen are the chemicals we’ve all heard of in health class that lead to lust. Lust leads to…well, if you don’t know by now then you’ll find out in senior health.

In past health classes, we learned the three aspects of love: passion, commitment, and intimacy. Although most of us youngsters didn’t understand what those three powerful words meant at the time, the best of us learn them from relationship to relationship. True love, which is everlasting, contains all three aspects of love.

So now I know. Now you know. Love isn’t just an emotion; it’s a chemical reaction that causes emotions. Love just happens! It’s one of the most beautiful aspects of the human race, and we should all discover our appreciation for it.