by Sarah Lewis

Created on: October 27, 2009

Love is something that our society has come to take too lightly. We love our pets. We love our phones. We love our friends, our clothes, our new jobs, that caramel macchiato we just got down at Starbucks. We love so-and-so on such-and-such a show. We love that new song on the radio. We love that new Brad Pitt movie As a society today we seem to love everything.

When it comes to relationships, many people may feel the need to jump into expressing their love for one another much too soon, because they feel that that is part of being in a relationship. You're with this person because you love them, right? But do you really know them? If you force something like this that is supposed to be a significant milestone in a relationship, you can only set yourself to stress your foundation later on. Then, to continually repeat something that might not mean as much to you as you think only lessens the impact of the phrase.

I have to wonder - do half the people who claim to love their partners really love their partners? Or are they just saying that because everyone else is, because society tells us we should? Are they trying to account for something they feel they're lacking? Do they really have a firm grasp on what love means? Does anyone have a firm grasp on what love means anymore?

The more we use a phrase, the more you diminish it's meaning. Curse words have been used with such frequency that they no longer hold quite the significance that they used to or even should. You can curse and swear at someone as much as you like, you hear it in on the street day in and day out and does it bother you? Not a bit. This is tantamount to saying I love you too much. We should only be using those three words when we really mean them and when they're special. We're all guilty of overusing it, even I myself. I love you is something that should be kept sacred, not beaten to death and overused.

Maybe, instead of loving all of our things we can simply like them and hold love to the higher standard it should be. We as a whole should place love back on the pedestal it belongs on.

I like my pets. I like my friends. I like my phone. I like my job. I like that caramel macchiato I just got down at Starbucks, and I'll leave love for something or someone that truly means more than the world to me.

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