The “l-word” is one of those words that found a comfy home on the list of things we are forbidden to say.

 It resides directly under curse words, dreadful adjectives like “moist” and our favorite Harry Potter villain that shall not be named.

This is probably the case because most of us grew up being told “love” is a strong word that we shouldn’t just toss around like a Sunday afternoon game of catch. 

And it’s true.

You can throw it as far and hard as you want, but there won’t always be someone on the other side ready to catch it. 

You’re supposed to look into the distance and make sure they’re standing there, heart and hands wide open. 

Some people will catch it, others will drop it, and a few will watch it sail clear over the trees without a worry about where it will land. 

The point of my terrible, semi-baseball analogy is that the spreading philosophy of love says the power lies in the hands of the catcher. 

You should never be the one to admit you’ve fallen in love first and you certainly shouldn’t love those that don’t love you back. 

While this seems to be a foolproof plan, it’s not that simple. 

The thing about catchers is that you don’t know who is truly poised to catch until after you’ve already thrown. You’ve got to give people a chance. 

You’ve got to give people the chance to show you who they are and give them an honest shot at love because that’s all we really have to give.

So yes, that means you have to date an idiot or two because the only way you will know when it’s truly right is when you’ve taken the time to discover all the things that make it wrong. 

And if you fall in love with each and every one of those idiots, don’t let anyone tell you you’re wrong. 

Share your heart with whomever you believe deserves it because there’s no such thing as loving too much or too soon. 

The thing is you can try to protect yourself from all the people that will hurt you by avoiding or denying love. But there’s a pretty big chance you’ll miss out on the people that really care about you, too. 

At this age, there will be plenty of people to tell you that you’re too young to know what true love is. Maybe that’s true. 

Maybe most of us don’t know what true love is, but we know what love is. 

When you’re young love is in its purest form.

It doesn’t matter if she knows how to cook dinner for company, how to clean or how to raise a baby. 

You don’t really care if he plays more video games than he should or if he has enough money to buy a car or a house because that’s not important to you just yet.

You’re together simply because you enjoy each other’s company and you make each other happy. 

In that way, young love is unselfish. 

Never regret the choices you’ve made and the people you’ve shared your life with because even if it was only for a fleeting moment, they made you happy. 

They taught you lessons, made you laugh, probably made you cry and brought you that much closer to finding the person that was made especially for you.

That’s not exactly the most painless road to take, but no matter what happens along the way, it will lead you somewhere.