Anna-Catherine Kueng ~ Assistant Editor
Sadhu Vaswani is attributed with saying, “Love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice.” With the way the Internet can be, I am not sure if he truly said that, but I do believe these words are true. In Hallmark movies and the like, love is portrayed as a beautiful, easy thing. Love is beautiful, but I have never known it to be easy. Truly loving someone changes you completely.
For example, many mothers say they understand what unconditional love is when they have children and are willing to give up their bodies, time, and money to take care of babies who are incapable of returning the favors in their early years of life.
When I was growing up, my parents made countless sacrifices for me. The older I get, the more I realize how much they gave up so that my sister and I could have the best lives possible. Even right now, my parents are spending their money on my college tuition because they want me to be able to get an education and have an enjoyable career one day.
On a more relatable level, since many college students are not parents, I want to look at relationships with significant others and friends. When you begin dating someone, everything in the beginning is “sunshine and rainbows” as the expression goes. The first date is exciting and life seems to be great. But, as time passes, it is inevitable that people in love will have to face tough parts of life together.
When my boyfriend and I started dating, my mom had just had full knee replacement and he saw how hard it was for my mom to deal with the pains of recovery. During those first few weeks, things were not perfect because I was worried about my mom. After that first month of dating, my cat died and my boyfriend helped my family bury Cuddles. Shortly after the summer ended, I was back into the throes of college and the stresses that come along with the semester. A few more months into dating, my dog from childhood died and once again, I was very sad and my boyfriend was there to comfort me.
I say all this because people think falling in love happens during dreamy parts of life, and maybe it does, but the times I have realized how much I love my boyfriend are when he is there for me, when life is not as beautiful as I expected. I am thankful for him when I think back to our first date eating ice cream together, but I am even more thankful for him when I think about him helping my mom when she was struggling after surgery, burying my cat, and holding my hand when I cried.
I have seen how my parents, my sister, my best friends, and my boyfriend have made sacrifices for me and I know I have done the same for them. To put it simply, love is putting yourself second. Loving someone is giving up a part of yourself because you realize your decisions and actions not only affect you, but they affect others in your life. When you love another, you have to surrender your pride as well because your loved ones will make mistakes and need to be forgiven, but so will you.
Whether you are sacrificing your time, money, comfort, or convenience, one thing is sure: sacrifices for love are always worth the cost.