Sometimes we just hit it off really well with people of the opposite gender. Our thoughts, ideas, ideologies and plans may strike a tune, and eventually we may even feel flattered or flirty with them. It is okay to feel that way about someone. Attractions happen almost instantly, some from the connections of thoughts and some from the first looks of things, mostly by appearance. Very often, we are quick to term this feeling as love. As teenagers, everything seems very easy and naive to us, especially these butterflies in our stomachs. As our crappy Bollywood movie logic feeds us with "Love is friendship." Or "A girl and a boy can never be friends." And even "Once you are attracted, you can't be friends," and "Exs can't be friends", the reality contradicts such stereotypes. Eventually, you realise that "love and friendship are not synonyms. Yes, you need to love your friends and cherish your friendships. You can keep friendships with people you once liked. Or even exs. It's a personal choice. You don't need to be in love with people to care for them." There is a very thin line between the two; people fail to judge. Love, infatuation, attraction and expectations from the wrong places often lead to pain and confusion. Friendship is always where you should find home in a storm, an anchor to your boat. Friendship should be a wise choices that last. Love, as the generation calls it, may or may not. Just because you are single doesn't mean you love your best friend or someone who gave you a shoulder to cry on. When you can do with anybody in that place, it's never love. It's loneliness. Seeking validation. And perhaps wanting care. People often mix up these feelings with the word love. The term love is too deep. Too much emotion and commitment are involved. While the friendships we share should be rare and unique in their own ways. Some get attracted first, then become friends. And some friends mistake their care as love and lose the friendship. It's not wrong to be attracted. It's no crime to want to feel validated. It's the happiness you derive from friendship. Life is too short to crib about wrong choices and broken hearts. It's a journey of happiness and laughter. So every heart out there standing in that thin line between these two feelings, take a small step back. Don't overstep the line until you know your friendship is not that precious enough to lose over feelings that you name love.
~ Suranya