Love

Interesting thread. I read Mango's opening post, and I pretty much agree 100% with it. People can convince themselves they're in love so easily once the hormones get going and instinct kicks in. I think I've personally only ever felt real, true love twice in my life. One was a girl who I started off not thinking too much about at first. She was just my dance partner and I thought she was cute, but that's as far as it went. Then a friend saw something there and decided to place an idea in either of our heads that each of us was really into the other. He told me he overheard her friends telling her, "He looks like he wants to kiss you during that dip," and apparantly her response was, "I kind of wish he would," so I decided, "Well, what's the harm in asking her to go to dinner?" He refused to confirm or deny that he made the story up, but before I knew it we were stealing kisses on stage as the lights faded out during our performance. As I got to know her better, I realized just how amazing she was. She would volunteer at hospitals. She would teach dance lessons to kids at her mother's studio. She donated food to homeless shelters. She always went out of her way to help people. She was the rare person who was beautiful both inside and out. It was for that reason that I ultimately decided that I wasn't good enough for her. I wanted so much better for her than the life she'd have had with me... so I broke it off. It was only after I let her go that I realized I genuinely did love her. It's little wonder that I regret not loving myself enough at the time to have stayed with her. The other was the woman that I ended up married to. She was a good person; if not without her flaws. She was kind of lazy, she tended to keep her feelings bottled up, and was way too obsessed with appearances; but, at the same time, she was also very kind, smart, and she had a great sense of humor. I felt more comfortable with her than I ever had with anyone. I told her all my secrets; all my weaknesses and fears... and she accepted me and loved me anyway. She was my best friend in many ways. Unfortunately, in the end, what she wanted from life changed and... that was that. I'm not sure which one I would say was the deeper love, but there's no question that they both took a part of me with them, and I will never forget either of them until the day I die. I thin-- ...I feel like that may be the truest indication of love there is.

I kind of wish I wasn't so indecisive and cowardly with expressing my true feelings. But its a little too late now since they are engaged to someone else..

I'm of a mind that if you really care about them that much (and I mean you know it somewhere deep down in your core), you'd be doing them a disservice to never let them know what you feel. They may never have realized that there was another option there for them. You might be tempted to feel bad for the other person they're involved with, but if you were able to convince them to abandon an engagement that easily, I'd say you actually saved them both from even worse heartache down the line. Heck, you might even be able to play it off as you just being a good friend who's trying to make sure they're really prepared to take the plunge. I think there are some smart ways you could approach it. There's no rule that you can't be sneaky about these kinds of things. >:D No need to show your whole hand unless you know you've got a chance to win. ;)

Well, it was largely meant for Fatalis, but I think I'd direct that advice to just about anyone really. Then again, I'm just some rando on the internet, so what do I know? :P

They knew how I felt the whole time and felt the same way towards me too... I was in love with this guy for probably over 10 years now and he told me he had liked me also the whole time recently...but he was afraid of disappointing me because of how he was back then. Of course he told me all this after he had fixed things with his current fiance and had no intentions of breaking it off to be with me. I really wish he would have never said any of it..especially after I had finally gotten over him..I was finally okay with not being with him...then he had to go and tell me all that and flirt with me...even wanted me to pretend to flirt with him in front of his gf so she'd break up with him.

No offense but his behavior shows he has obvious issues. Relationships with someone like that tend to be emotional roller coasters and may not last in the long run.

That's the thing loli, people like roller coasters. They're fun. They may be more likely to hurt you but they're also much more interesting than a safe walk on the grass.