Is it Love or Like?

I don’t usually write about my love stories either falling in or out. Simply because I don’t want to shout to the world my love for her nor chronicle how we become the best of lovers. More so, I don’t want to get back to and dwell on those bitter days.

I admit I am not that romantic like what every girl dreams of their knight in shining armor. I am just a typical happy fellow out there who cares much of today and wait the tomorrow to become today to make the most out of it. I am more of a now person.

But this will be an exception.

My friend introduced a young lady through social networking, Facebook to be exact. She is working in the east coast, hundred miles away from me and we haven’t met yet in person. I won’t deny that she has captured my attention. And that means I am spending a considerable time with her mostly through telephone. I think it even falls under limerent state. I was struck because of her beauty perhaps (beautiful indeed) or maybe because of her lovely voice. She is a lady bloomed by love of her family, her father especially. She is full of dream, and one is to have a happy family like what she is having now. She may have some specks of insecurity like all of us but these are overshadowed by her optimism.

Things turned out well for a couple of months or more. We talked about life and love and future plans shifting sometimes the talk about work and family. I read her about life quotes and stories, singing those loveliest songs I know. Simply it was all about her and me. I entertained the big possibility that she is the ONE I have been looking for. Suddenly, things became unexpectedly rough. It was something that I cannot understand even if how hardly I tried. I was grappling for those suppositions which culled during college days. But none of them could give the answer. I was attributing the reasons externally. I never considered internal attributions as I know I was doing the right things. Until I realized one night after a casual talk, on the contrast of like and love, with a 64 year-old widowed who is dating a foreigner younger than her that I may have to reconsider my position. I need to get back to the basics. She figured out the difference between like and love based on her experience. She said that like is the precursor of love. You cannot love a person unless you like him/her. Love blossoms between two lovers if they started liking each other, whether that love is familial or romantic. She however admitted that the demarcation line between the two is hazy which I agree. As our discussion went on, I remembered this article from an unknown author on the difference between like and love:

In front of the person you love, your heart beats faster
But in front of the person you like , you get happy.

In front of the person you love, winter seems like spring
But in front of the person you like, winter is just a beautiful winter.

If you look into the eyes of the one you love, you blush
But if you look into the eyes of the one you like, you smile.

In front of the person you love, you can’ t say everything on your mind
But in front of the person you like, you can.

In front of the person you love, you tend to get shy
But in front of the person you like, you can show your ownself.

Then person you love comes into your mind every 2 minutes.
You can’t look straight into the eyes of the one you love
But you can always smile into the eyes of the one you like.

When the one you love is crying, you cry with them
But when the one you like is crying, you end up comforting.

The feeling of love starts from the eye
And the feeling of like starts from the ear.

So if you stop liking a person you used to like
All you need to do is cover your ears,
But if you try to close your eyes
Love turns into a drop of tear and remains in your heart forever after.

After our enlightening discussion and after going through again the article, I could say I already fathom the real score. #