LOVE!!!

One of the BIGGEST talked about topics upon this very Earth today....LOVE. So many have experienced it, felt it, embraced it, died for it, killed for it, sacrificed for it, so on and so forth....but can anyone say that LOVE really means something to them?  In this day and age, LOVE and all that it represents is used in so many ways, I won't say exploited because it's not a person or animal and in the sense of being an actual thing....I would say it is not. Now, I am sure there are some who will disagree with me upon that, and I am not entirely sure I believe myself when I say what I said a bit ago. I am acquainted with the word myself, as I too once felt LOVE in my life unlike the kind that comes from family and close friends. No, this love was different; to me it felt safe, uplifting, secure. Many won't know what this feels like because they will never have the chance to know it. But for those who have, how did it make you feel?

I know how it made me feel, and for me to share it is an intimate look into my personal world that not many are given entry to.  To feel it, but lose it is an unjust feeling. I'll say because it's not something you care to give up once you have had it in your hands, venturing its way through your body up to your heart. Losing it is a feeling all in itself..because love can be lost in many different ways: it can be taken from you, it can be lost upon you, it can be stripped out of you are just to name several of the ways I've seen love ejected from the hearts, minds, and souls of many I've come to know over the past few years.

I got my first up close and personal look into the complex world of LOVE when I first left home at 18 and went to Maryland to work for the military as a new soldier on Active Duty with the United States Army. I am now 23 years old, and as I look back over my life the past 5 years that I've been on my own..I must say that it's been quite the rollercoaster ride. I never expected to go through HALF of the things I went through to get where I am now.  Many of the mistakes I made, were because of love and being the naive teenager that I was, I felt that I was adult enough to make the decisions a grown man would make and that I was not yet ready to make myself. I don't know that the person(s) I had been with had been entirely forthcoming with me when we first met, and today, looking back on it all.....I both thank and resent those individuals for the roles they played in my life. They say you go through trials and tribulations to make you a stronger person but sometimes those trials and such should be dealt with at certain times.

I feel as though I have more of a keen eye today than I did 5 years ago, and while many will say that I am still a young man in looks and heart...I believe that my mind has matured more and I am more adept to being able to spot when something is and isn't good for me.  I am 23 years old, and many people my age are out playing the field, hooking up, laying it down, partying on a 24/7 basis. Is that the impression our generation is leaving upon our ancestors and younger generation? It appears to be so and if that be the case, I care not to be apart of that legacy.