What I already know of love & its myths before the age of 20.

• there is no ‘the one’. there are just too many people and too many possible permutations.
• there is however, a soulmate, and chances are you will never end up with him/her because you’re not bisexual enough (if girl) or because you just can’t have him (if boy). Luck arranges its cruelty around you like that, I recognize one person as mine and two irreversible reasons as to why we cannot move forward. I’m sure one reason is enough, but I’m lucky like that.
• soulmates and romance don’t need to go together anyway.
• and the one you are with is no less capable of assembling a totally satisfactory form of happiness for the both of you.
• that however, takes a lot of time. strange beautiful things can come from creepy corners. never dismiss anything or you will just risk tasting the flavour of foot later. yummy hypocrisy.
• money is only important if dependency is important.
• if there is reason to believe that they can follow temptation and get away with it, they will, because as much as we love people, we also love the way they make us feel about ourselves, and what they offer us that others cannot. Trust nobody. I learned this from one half of my genes.
• love is not to be confused with commitment, dependency, possession, dominance, barter, or infatuation.
• having said that, love does not require an age limit (this is for the editor of the anthology I was published that switched my use of ‘love’ to ‘infatuation’ without telling me because I was 15 when I wrote it). it is not a club membership for the privileged.
• it doesn’t have to be long-term to be real. something amazing is still capable of expiring fast, so just let it & it’ll feel better in the long run.
• possessive people are most worried about themselves than anyone else.
• no matter how much you believe you were in deep, you will be able to climb out. and do it again.