i'm in love essay

Deeply In Love

When we first met, you and I were both emerging from unhappy relationships, but we helped each through them. We confided in one another, we comforted one another, and we healed one another. We built strong trust and communication and, before long, we were deeply in love.

I fall deeper in love with you every day. I can't tell you how much you mean to me, or how much I love to just be with you. You make me smile and laugh out loud! You make me feel comfortable, confident, and protected. For the first time in my life, I feel whole and fully alive, and it's all because of you. I love you!

I'm sure you've noticed how much my love for you has grown, and how much I depend on you and ask for your help. It might all be a bit sudden, I know, but it's become crystal clear to me that there is nobody on this planet more perfect for me than you are. Nobody but you could give me this confidence and this deep sense of purpose and connection. Nobody but you could make me feel so beautiful and secure. With every bit of my heart, I love you and am thankful for you. Please stay with me and let me love you forever.

In this world of uncertainties, only one thing is certain beyond a doubt: you are all I need and all I want. You are the air moving through my lungs. You are the blood coursing through my veins. You are everything to me, and with you in my life, worries seem no longer possible.

Our time together has been such a blessing. I can never express my gratitude for the ways you have changed my life. I can never express my gratitude for your open arms, your comforting words, and your caring thoughts. I have fallen deeply for you, and I know there's no turning back. Until my last breath, I am yours. I will love you forever!

Before meeting you, I had never felt this kind of love before or this kind of passion and joy. Before meeting you, I never imagined I could feel happy all of the time, from morning until I begin dreaming at night. Now my world is changed and everything seems wonderful and bright. Because of you, everything now feels warm and secure. In your arms, I feel the whole world is open to me.

There are no words to properly thank you for all that you have done for me or to fully express my deepest feelings to you. I can only say, "thank you," and hope that in those two words you hear the sincere love and relief in my heart. I can only say, "I love you," and hope that you hear the longing and affection in my soul!

Although you and I have not been together for very long, I already feel so deeply in love with you. I already feel that we are building a life together and that our worlds are one. Honestly, I thought love like this was only in fiction, but you have proven me wrong.

I wish I could describe my love for you, but it would truly take forever. I love every single detail, every single moment that we are together. I could never describe it all, but I can say that you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I can say that I love you with all my heart and soul, and that I am yours for life.

You don't realize how much you mean to me. Although we've been together for only a year, I feel as though I've known you my entire life. My connection to you is already so deep, and my love for you is already so strong that I can't imagine what my life was like before we met. Even more, I can't imagine my life without you now. I can't imagine the future without you, either.

You have saved my life several times already. You have even saved me from myself several times, too! I am so thankful for your guidance and care. Whenever I'm having a bad day, I know that I can just give you a call. I know I can depend on you and, with your help, everything will turn out well.

I want you to know how I really feel. It's time for you know that I'm ready to move on farther, to build a life, to have your children, and to grow old together. You are my first and only true love. Don't ever forget how much I love you.

Recommended Articles

Recommended letter-writing resources.

Action Verbs for Resumes and Cover Letters

Business Letter Format Tips

Letter Closings

Feb 20, 2023

250-500 Word Example Essays About Love and Romance

Got an Essay assignment about Love and Romance? Let us help you out with these inspiring Examples!

Love, an emotion that has captivated the hearts and minds of poets, authors, and artists throughout history, remains a profound and multi-faceted subject. While the depth and complexity of this emotion can make it a daunting topic to explore in an essay, the right resources can turn this challenge into a rewarding endeavor. For those looking to capture the essence of love and romance in their writing, our essay writer can be a beacon of inspiration and assistance. This tool, powered by Jenni.ai, offers a seamless journey through the essay-writing process, from brainstorming ideas to refining the final draft. 

Whether you're delving into argumentative, persuasive , or reflective essays about love, Jenni.ai ensures clarity, coherence, and a touch of elegance in your prose. It's a trusted companion for students, educators, and seasoned writers alike, simplifying the writing journey every step of the way.

1. The Evolution of Love: A Study of the Changing Nature of Romance throughout History

Introduction.

Love is one of humanity's most complicated and mysterious emotions. People have strived to comprehend and define Love throughout history, resulting in many works of literature, art, and music dedicated to the subject. Despite its universal appeal, the nature of Love has evolved significantly throughout time, reflecting evolving cultural, social, and economic situations. In this essay, we will look at the evolution of Love, from ancient times to the present.

Ancient Love

A. Greek and Roman Love

Love was viewed as a complex and varied feeling in ancient Greece and Rome, comprising characteristics of desire, friendship, and awe. Love was frequently represented as a tremendous force in ancient civilizations, capable of both propelling individuals to high heights of success and bringing them down into the depths of sorrow. This was especially true of romantic Love, which was glorified in epic poems like the Iliad and Odyssey , as well as works of art and literature depicting the hardships and sufferings of star-crossed lovers.

B. Medieval Love

A chivalric code known as courtly Love emerged in medieval Europe. Its core tenants were the importance of Love, honour, and devotion. During this time, romantic Love was typically portrayed as an unrequited emotion, with the lover pining for the affections of a faraway and unreachable beloved. Medieval poets and troubadours mirrored this romanticised picture of Love in their works by singing and writing about the highs and lows of passionate Love.

Modern Love

A. The Renaissance

The idealized picture of Love that had ruled for centuries was called into question by artists and intellectuals during the Renaissance, marking a turning point in the development of romantic relationships. During this time, romantic Love was portrayed as more tactile and visceral. Shakespeare, for instance, reflected the shifting beliefs of his day by exploring the nuanced and often tragic nature of Love in his works.

B. The Enlightenment

The concepts of reason and individuality began to gain root during the Enlightenment, and with that came a shift in how people saw Love. Political marriages and alliances were often formed based on Love, which was now considered a more sensible and practical feeling. Thinkers from the Enlightenment period, including Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, shared this perspective on Love as a tool for bettering society and the individual.

C. The Modern Era

Today, the word "love" is most often used to describe a feeling one has when they are in a committed relationship or when one has achieved their own goals. Love has become a consumable good thanks to the spread of consumerism and the worship of the individual. The media and arts reflect this conception of Love by depicting it as a means to one's fulfillment and contentment.

The changing cultural, social, and economic conditions of each historical epoch are reflected in the history of Love. The essence of Love has changed dramatically throughout the years, from its idealised image in ancient Greece and Rome to its depiction as a spiritual tie in mediaeval Europe to its current identification with romantic relationships and personal fulfilment. Despite these changes, Love remains a strong and enduring force in human existence, inspiring numerous works of art, literature, and music and affecting how we live and interact with one another.

2. The Power of Love: Examining the Impact of Love on Our Lives and Relationships

Love is a strong feeling that may dramatically alter our life and the bonds we form with others. love, whether romantic, familial, or platonic, can unite us and improve our lives in countless ways., the benefits of love.

A. Improved Physical Health

Love has been demonstrated to improve physical health by decreasing stress, lowering blood pressure, and increasing immunity. The hormone oxytocin, which is released in response to social bonding and has been demonstrated to reduce physiological responses to stress, is thought to be at play here.

B. Enhanced Mental Health

In addition to its physical benefits, Love has been shown to have a beneficial effect on our mental health, lowering stress and anxiety levels and boosting our general sense of happiness. The protective powers of Love against the negative consequences of stress and other difficulties in life are well accepted.

C. Strengthened Relationships

A stronger tie may be formed between two people via the power of Love. Relationships of all kinds, whether romantic, familial, or platonic, may benefit from the strengthening effects of Love by increasing their levels of closeness, trust, and mutual understanding.

The Challenges of Love

A. Love can be painful

Sometimes Love hurts, as when a relationship ends or when we can't find the one we're looking for. One of life's most trying events is losing someone we care about, which may leave us feeling isolated, discouraged, and empty.

The Power of Love to Overcome Challenges

Despite these difficulties, Love may help us overcome them and grow closer to one another. The strength of Love is that it may help us learn and grow, both as people and as a community, via its many forms, such as forgiveness, compromise, and the willingness to persevere through adversity.

Finally, Love is a strong and transformational force that may profoundly influence our lives and relationships. Love may provide us joy, comfort, and a feeling of purpose, whether between friends, family, or romantic partners. Despite its numerous advantages, Love may also bring with it difficulties such as heartbreak and strife. Nonetheless, never underestimate the power of Love. 

It has the potential to draw people together and form deep, long-lasting bonds. Love has the power to make the world a better place, whether through acts of kindness, selflessness, or simply being there for one another. So, let us embrace Love in all of its manifestations and harness its potential to improve our lives and the lives of those around us.

3. The Science of Love: Understanding the Biology and Psychology Behind Love and Attraction

For millennia, people have been drawn and intrigued by the intricate and intriguing feeling of Love. Despite its enormous global significance, the science of Love is now being thoroughly investigated. This paper will investigate the biology and psychology of Love and attraction, delving into the different elements that impact these powerful emotions and how they form our relationships.

The Biology of Love

A. Hormone Function

Love is a biological process controlled by chemicals such as dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin. These hormones influence our sensations of attraction, enthusiasm, and enjoyment and boost sentiments of trust and closeness.

B. The Influence of Genetics

Genetics also has an impact on Love and attraction, with some personality qualities and physical characteristics that are considered to be appealing to potential spouses being handed down from generation to generation. This suggests that particular preferences for specific sorts of people are hardwired into our genetics, influencing our romantic and sexual attraction patterns.

The Psychology of Love

A. The Role of Attachment Styles

Our attachment types, which we acquire from our early connections with our caretakers, also affect our Love. These attachment types can significantly influence our later relationships, influencing how we build and keep deep attachments with others.

B. The Impact of Social Norms and Values

Cultural Values

Social conventions and cultural ideas also impact Love and attraction, with societal expectations and values impacting our romantic and sexual impulses. These social conventions and cultural ideas influence everything from who we are attracted to and how we approach and pursue relationships.

The Meeting of Biology and

Love Psychology

The biology and psychology of Love are inextricably linked and interdependent, with one having a complicated and subtle impact on the other. This suggests that, while biology influences our sentiments of attraction and Love, our psychological experiences and beliefs may equally shape these emotions.

To summarise, love science is a complicated and intriguing discipline that encompasses the biology and psychology of this strong and transformational emotion. By investigating the elements that impact Love and attraction, we may gain a deeper understanding of the systems that underpin these feelings and how they shape our lives and relationships. The study of Love is a vital and beneficial effort, whether we seek Love, attempt to preserve Love, or wonder about the science underlying this feeling.

4. The Fine Line Between Love and Obsession: Exploring the Dark Side of Love

Love is a powerful and transformative emotion that can bring immense joy and fulfilment to our lives. But Love can also turn dark and dangerous when it crosses the line into obsession. This essay will examine the fine line between Love and obsession, exploring how Love can become unhealthy and dangerous.

The Characteristics of Obsessive Love

A. Unhealthy Attachment

Obsessive Love is characterized by an unhealthy attachment to another person, with the obsessed person becoming overly dependent on their partner for emotional fulfilment. This can lead to feelings of possessiveness and jealousy, as well as a need for constant attention and validation.

B. Control and Manipulation

Obsessive Love can also involve control and manipulation, with the obsessed person trying to control every aspect of their partner's life and behaviour. This can range from minor acts of manipulation, such as trying to dictate what their partner wears or who they spend time with, to more serious forms of control, such as physical abuse or stalking.

The Dark Side of Love

A. Stalking and Harassment

The dark side of Love can take many forms, with stalking and harassment being among the most extreme and dangerous forms of obsessive behaviour. Stalking and harassment can have serious and long-lasting consequences for the victim, causing fear, stress, and trauma that can impact their mental and physical well-being.

B. Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is another form of the dark side of Love, with physical, sexual, and psychological abuse being used as a means of control and domination. Domestic violence can have devastating consequences for the victim, often leading to serious injury or even death.

The Roots of Obsessive Love

A. Psychological Issues

Obsessive Love can have its roots in psychological issues, including depression, anxiety, and borderline personality disorder. These conditions can lead to feelings of insecurity and low self-esteem, making it difficult for individuals to form healthy relationships.

B. Cultural and Social Factors

Cultural and social factors can also play a role in the development of obsessive Love, with certain societal beliefs and norms promoting possessiveness and control in relationships. This can include gender roles, expectations, and cultural beliefs about Love and relationships.

In conclusion, the fine line between Love and obsession is delicate and dangerous, with Love crossing over into unhealthy and dangerous territory when it becomes obsessive. By understanding the characteristics of obsessive Love and how it can take dark and dangerous forms, we can better protect ourselves and our loved ones from the negative consequences of this powerful emotion.

5. The Concept of Unconditional Love: An Analysis of the Ideal of Selfless Love

All kinds of different things count as Love since it's such a complicated and diverse feeling. Unconditional Love is frequently depicted as altruistic, all-encompassing, and unshakable, making it one of the most romanticized types. In this essay, I'd discuss the idea of unconditional Love, defining it and contrasting it with other types of affection.

An Explanation of Selfless Love

A. Selfless Love

The term "unconditional love" is commonly used to describe a type of Love that puts the other person's needs before its own. In this kind of Love, one person cares for another without any thought of return or compensation.

B. Love that encompasses everything

Many people use the term "all-encompassing" to express how unconditional Love embraces a person regardless of who they are or what they've done in their lives. A love like this doesn't depend on the other person changing or improving in any way; rather, it's an unconditional embrace of the person as they are.

The Ideal of Unconditional Love

A. Love Without Conditions

Unconditional Love is a romantic ideal in which the lover places no restrictions on the object of his affection. Since it involves so much giving of oneself, this kind of Love is typically held up as the pinnacle of romantic relationships.

B. Putting the Feeling into Action

However, since we are all flawed human beings, practising unconditional Love can be challenging in daily life. Although this may be the case, the ideal of unconditional Love is still significant since it motivates us to improve our Love and compassion towards others.

The Advantages of Unconditional Love

A. Stronger Connections

Unconditional Love has the potential to improve our connections with others, leading to deeper and more meaningful bonds. This kind of Love creates a non-judgmental and welcoming attitude towards people, which can assist to lessen conflict and improve understanding.

B. More Joy and Satisfaction

As a result of the more profound relationships it fosters, unconditional Love may also increase a person's sense of well-being and contentment. Finding Love like this may give our life new meaning and make us feel whole.

In conclusion, many of us hold unconditional Love as a relationship goal. Even if it's not always possible, the ideal of unconditional Love is worthwhile since it motivates us to increase our Love and compassion. The concept of unconditional Love may lead us to a more meaningful and happy lifestyle, whether our goal is to better our relationships or to find more pleasure and contentment in general.

6. The Importance of Communication in Love Relationships: A Study of the Role of Communication in Maintaining Love

Love relationships, like all others, benefit greatly from open lines of communication between partners. Connecting with one another on a regular basis, whether it's to chat about the day, express emotions, or problem-solve, is crucial to keeping the Love alive between you. This essay will discuss the significance of communication in romantic relationships, specifically how it helps couples stay together and grow closer over time.

Advantages of good communication

Increased Compatibility and Mutual Understanding

Love partnerships benefit significantly from open lines of communication that facilitate mutual understanding and closeness. Sharing our innermost ideas, emotions, and experiences with our partners via direct and honest communication strengthens our bonds with them.

Reduced Conflict

As we can better address difficulties and find positive solutions to differences when communicating effectively, we experience less conflict in our relationships. Relationships may be stronger and more loving by talking through differences and finding common ground.

The Difficulties in Expressing Your Feelings in a Romantic Relationship

A. Confusing Messages and Confused Intents

Good communication can sometimes be difficult, especially in romantic partnerships, despite its many advantages. Conflict, anger and a lack of trust may all result from poor communication and misunderstandings in relationships.

B. Vulnerability and Emotional Safety

Likewise, it takes courage and trust to open up and talk about your feelings with the person you love. It may be nerve-wracking to communicate our innermost thoughts and feelings with a partner because of the risk of being judged harshly or rejected.

The Importance of Active Listening

What is Active Listening?

Maintaining positive connections with others requires not just good talkers but also good listeners. Paying close attention to the other person as they speak and making an effort to get their viewpoint and requirements is an essential component of active listening.

The Benefits of Active Listening

The ability to listen attentively and process information can have a significant influence on interpersonal bonds. You may show your spouse how much you value their opinion and the commitment you have to the relationship by listening attentively to what they have to say.

Finally, it's important to note that communication is a cornerstone of successful, loving partnerships. Communication is crucial for developing and maintaining healthy relationships , whether it is via problem-solving, venting, or just listening. Your relationship may grow stronger and become more rewarding and loving if you put an emphasis on communicating well with one another.

Final Words

Love is a complicated and varied theme that has inspired numerous works of art, literature, and music. Whether it is the science of Love, the power of Love, or the development of Love, there is a great deal to learn and comprehend about this universal feeling. 

Students now have access to a potent tool that may assist them in writing essays about Love with ease and assurance thanks to Jenni.ai. From giving ideas and recommendations to leading you through the writing process, Jenni.ai is the ideal option for anyone who wants to write about Love and relationships. Why then wait? Sign up for a free trial of Jenni.ai today and explore its numerous writing perks!

Try Jenni for free today

Create your first piece of content with Jenni today and never look back

Before You Write a Love Essay, Read This to Get Examples

The day will come when you can’t escape the fate of all students: You will have to write a what is love essay.

No worries:

Here you’ll find tons of love essay topics and examples. No time to read everything? Scroll down to get a free PDF with original samples.

Definition: Essay on Love

First, let’s define what is love essay?

The most common topics are:

• Definition of love
• What is love?
• Meaning of love

Why limit yourself to these hackneyed, general themes? Below, I’ll show how to make your paper on love original yet relevant to the prompt you get from teachers.

Love Essay Topics: 20 Ideas to Choose for Your Paper

Your essay on love and relationship doesn’t have to be super official and unemotional. It’s ok to share reflections and personal opinions when writing about romance.

Often, students get a general task to write an essay on love. It means they can choose a theme and a title for their paper. If that’s your case,  feel free to try any of these love essay topics:

• Exploring the impact of love on individuals and relationships.
• Love in the digital age: Navigating romance in a tech world.
• Is there any essence and significance in unconditional love?
• Love as a universal language: Connecting hearts across cultures.
• Biochemistry of love: Exploring the process.
• Love vs. passion vs. obsession.
• How love helps cope with heartbreak and grief.
• The art of loving. How we breed intimacy and trust.
• The science behind attraction and attachment.
• How love and relationships shape our identity and help with self-discovery.
• Love and vulnerability: How to embrace emotional openness.
• Romance is more complex than most think: Passion, intimacy, and commitment explained.
• Love as empathy: Building sympathetic connections in a cruel world.
• Evolution of love. How people described it throughout history.
• The role of love in mental and emotional well-being.
• Love as a tool to look and find purpose in life.
• Welcoming diversity in relations through love and acceptance.
• Love vs. friendship: The intersection of platonic and romantic bonds.
• The choices we make and challenges we overcome for those we love.
• Love and forgiveness: How its power heals wounds and strengthens bonds.

Love Essay Examples: Choose Your Sample for Inspiration

Essays about love are usually standard, 5-paragraph papers students write in college:

• One paragraph is for an introduction, with a hook and a thesis statement
• Three are for a body, with arguments or descriptions
• One last passage is for a conclusion, with a thesis restatement and final thoughts

Below are the ready-made samples to consider. They’ll help you see what an essay about love with an introduction, body, and conclusion looks like.

What is love essay: 250 words

Lao Tzu once said, “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” Indeed, love can transform individuals, relationships, and our world.

A word of immense depth and countless interpretations, love has always fascinated philosophers, poets, and ordinary individuals. This  emotion breaks boundaries and has a super power to change lives. But what is love, actually?

It’s a force we feel in countless ways. It is the warm embrace of a parent, filled with care and unwavering support. It is the gentle touch of a lover, sparking a flame that ignites passion and desire. Love is the kind words of a friend, offering solace and understanding in times of need. It is the selfless acts of compassion and empathy that bind humanity together.

Love is not confined to romantic relationships alone. It is found in the family bonds, the connections we forge with friends, and even the compassion we extend to strangers. Love is a thread that weaves through the fabric of our lives, enriching and nourishing our souls.

However, love is not without its complexities. It can be both euphoric and agonizing, uplifting and devastating. Love requires vulnerability, trust, and the willingness to embrace joy and pain. It is a delicate balance between passion and compassion, independence and interdependence.

Finally, the essence of love may be elusive to define with mere words. It is an experience that surpasses language and logic, encompassing a spectrum of emotions and actions. Love is a profound connection that unites us all, reminding us of our shared humanity and the capacity for boundless compassion.

What is love essay: 500 words

A 500-word essay on why I love you

Trying to encapsulate why I love you in a mere 500 words is impossible. My love for you goes beyond the confines of language, transcending words and dwelling in the realm of emotions, connections, and shared experiences. Nevertheless, I shall endeavor to express the depth and breadth of my affection for you.

First and foremost, I love you for who you are. You possess a unique blend of qualities and characteristics that captivate my heart and mind. Your kindness and compassion touch the lives of those around you, and I am grateful to be the recipient of your unwavering care and understanding. Your intelligence and wit constantly challenge me to grow and learn, stimulating my mind and enriching our conversations. You have a beautiful spirit that radiates warmth and joy, and I am drawn to your vibrant energy.

I love the way you make me feel. When I am with you, I feel a sense of comfort and security that allows me to be my true self. Your presence envelops me in a cocoon of love and acceptance, where I can express my thoughts, fears, and dreams without fear of judgment. Your support and encouragement inspire me to pursue my passions and overcome obstacles. With you by my side, I feel empowered to face the world, knowing I have a partner who believes in me.

I love the memories we have created together. From the laughter-filled moments of shared adventures to the quiet and intimate conversations, every memory is etched in my heart. Whether exploring new places, indulging in our favorite activities, or simply enjoying each other’s company in comfortable silence, each experience reinforces our bond. Our shared memories serve as a foundation for our relationship, a testament to the depth of our connection and the love that binds us.

I love your quirks and imperfections. Your true essence shines through these unique aspects! Your little traits make me smile and remind me of the beautiful individual you are. I love how you wrinkle your nose when you laugh, become lost in thought when reading a book, and even sing off-key in the shower. These imperfections make you human, relatable, and utterly lovable.

I love the future we envision together. We support each other’s goals, cheering one another on as we navigate the path toward our dreams. The thought of building a life together, creating a home filled with love and shared experiences, fills my heart with anticipation and excitement. The future we imagine is one that I am eager to explore with you by my side.

In conclusion, the reasons why I love you are as vast and varied as the universe itself. It is a love that defies logic and surpasses the limitations of language. From the depths of my being, I love you for the person you are, the way you make me feel, the memories we cherish, your quirks and imperfections, and the future we envision together. My love for you is boundless, unconditional, and everlasting.

A 5-paragraph essay about love

I’ve gathered all the samples (and a few bonus ones) in one PDF. It’s free to download. So, you can keep it at hand when the time comes to write a love essay.

Ready to Write Your Essay About Love?

Now that you know the definition of a love essay and have many topic ideas, it’s time to write your A-worthy paper! Here go the steps:

• Check all the examples of what is love essay from this post.
• Choose the topic and angle that fits your prompt best.
• Write your original and inspiring story.

Any questions left? Our writers are all ears. Please don’t hesitate to ask!

• Essay samples
• Essay writing
• Writing tips

Recent Posts

• Writing the “Why Should Abortion Be Made Legal” Essay: Sample and Tips
• 3 Examples of Enduring Issue Essays to Write Yours Like a Pro
• Writing Essay on Friendship: 3 Samples to Get Inspired
• How to Structure a Leadership Essay (Samples to Consider)
• What Is Nursing Essay, and How to Write It Like a Pro

Essays About Love and Relationships: Top 5 Examples

Love, romance, and relationships are just as complicated and messy as they are fascinating. Read our guide on essays about love and relationships.

We, as humans, are social beings. Humanity is inclined towards living with others of our kind and forming relationships with them. Love, whether in a romantic context or otherwise, is essential to a strong relationship with someone. It can be used to describe familial, friendly, or romantic relationships; however, it most commonly refers to romantic partners. 

Love and relationships are difficult to understand, but with effort, devotion, and good intentions, they can blossom into something beautiful that will stay with you for life. This is why it is important to be able to discern wisely when choosing a potential partner.

5 Essay Examples

1. love and marriage by kannamma shanmugasundaram, 2. what my short-term relationships taught me about love and life by aaron zhu, 3. true love waits by christine barrett, 4. choosing the right relationship by robert solley, 5. masters of love by emily esfahani smith, 1. what is a healthy romantic relationship, 2. a favorite love story, 3. relationship experiences, 4. lessons relationships can teach you, 5. love and relationships in the 21st century, 6. is marriage necessary for true love.

“In successful love marriages, couples have to learn to look past these imperfections and remember the reasons why they married each other in the first place. They must be able to accept the fact that neither one of them is perfect. Successful love marriages need to set aside these superior, seemingly impossible expectations and be willing to compromise, settling for some good and some bad.”

Shanmugasundaram’s essay looks at marriage in Eastern Cultures, such as her Indian traditions, in which women have less freedom and are often forced into arranged marriages. Shanmugasundaram discusses her differing views with her parents over marriage; they prefer to stick to tradition while she, influenced by Western values, wants to choose for herself. Ultimately, she has compromised with her parents: they will have a say in who she marries, but it will be up to her to make the final decision. She will only marry who she loves. 

“There is no forever, I’ve been promised forever by so many exes that it’s as meaningless to me as a homeless person promising me a pot of gold. From here on out, I’m no longer looking for promises of forever, what I want is the promise that you’ll try your best and you’ll be worth it. Don’t promise me forever, promise me that there will be no regrets.”

In Zhu’s essay, he reflects on his lessons regarding love and relationships. His experiences with past partners have taught him many things, including self-worth and the inability to change others. Most interestingly, however, he believes that “forever” does not exist and that going into a relationship, they should commit to as long as possible, not “forever.” Furthermore, they should commit to making the relationship worthwhile without regret. 

“For life is a constant change, love is the greatest surprise, friendship is your best defense, maturity comes with responsibility and death is just around the corner, so, expect little, assume nothing, learn from your mistakes, never fail to have faith that true love waits, take care of your friends, treasure your family, moderate your pride and throw up all hatred for God opens millions of flowers without forcing the buds, reminding us not to force our way but to wait for true love to happen perfectly in His time.”

Barrett writes about how teenagers often feel the need to be in a relationship or feel “love” as soon as possible. But unfortunately, our brains are not fully matured in our teenage years, so we are more likely to make mistakes. Barrett discourages teenagers from dating so early; she believes that they should let life take its course and enjoy life at the moment. Her message is that they shouldn’t be in a rush to grow up, for true love will come to those who are patient. You might also be interested in these essays about commitment and essays about girlfriends .

“A paucity of common interests gets blamed when relationships go south, but they are rarely the central problem. Nonetheless, it is good to have some — mostly in terms of having enough in common that there are things that you enjoy spending time doing together. The more important domains to consider are personality and values, and when it comes to personality, the key question is how does your potential partner handle stress.”

Solley, from a more psychological perspective, gives tips on how one can choose the ideal person to be in a relationship with. Love is a lifetime commitment, so much thought should be put into it. One should look at culture, values regarding spending money, and common interests. Solley believes that you should not always look for someone with the same interests, for what makes a relationship interesting is the partners’ differences and how they look past them. 

“There are two ways to think about kindness. You can think about it as a fixed trait: Either you have it or you don’t. Or you could think of kindness as a muscle. In some people, that muscle is naturally stronger than in others, but it can grow stronger in everyone with exercise. Masters tend to think about kindness as a muscle. They know that they have to exercise it to keep it in shape. They know, in other words, that a good relationship requires sustained hard work.”

Smith discusses research conducted over many years that explains the different aspects of a relationship, including intimacy, emotional strength, and kindness. She discusses kindness in-depth, saying that a relationship can test your kindness, but you must be willing to work to be kind if you love your partner. You might also be interested in these essays about divorce .

6 Writing Prompts On Essays About Love and Relationships

Everyone has a different idea of what makes a great relationship. For example, some prioritize assertiveness in their partner, while others prefer a calmer demeanor. You can write about different qualities and habits that a healthy, respectful relationship needs, such as quality time and patience. If you have personal experience, reflect on this as well; however, if you don’t, write about what you would hope from your future partner. 

Love and relationships have been an essential element in almost every literary work, movie, and television show; an example of each would be Romeo and Juliet , The Fault in Our Stars , and Grey’s Anatomy . Even seemingly unrelated movies, such as the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings franchises, have a romantic component. Describe a love story of your choice; explain its plot, characters, and, most importantly, how the theme of love and relationships is present. 

If you have been in a romantic relationship before, or if you are in one currently, reflect on your experience. Why did you pursue this relationship? Explore your relationship’s positive and negative sides and, if applicable, how it ended. If not, write about how you will try and prevent the relationship from ending.

All our experiences in life form us, relationships included. In your essay, reflect on ways romantic relationships can teach you new things and make you better; consider values such as self-worth, patience, and positivity. Then, as with the other prompts, use your personal experiences for a more interesting essay. Hou might find our guide on how to write a vow helpful.

How love, romance, and relationships are perceived has changed dramatically in recent years; from the nuclear family, we have seen greater acceptance of same-sex relationships, blended families, and relationships with more than two partners—research on how the notion of romantic relationships has changed and discuss this in your essay. 

More and more people in relationships are deciding not to get married. For a strong argumentative essay, discuss whether you agree with the idea that true love does not require marriage, so it is fine not to get married in the first place. Research the arguments of both sides, then make your claim. 

Check out our guide packed full of transition words for essays . If you’re still stuck, check out our general resource of essay writing topics .

Martin is an avid writer specializing in editing and proofreading. He also enjoys literary analysis and writing about food and travel.

View all posts

Essay on Love for Students and Children

500+ words essay on love.

Love is the most significant thing in human’s life. Each science and every single literature masterwork will tell you about it. Humans are also social animals. We lived for centuries with this way of life, we were depended on one another to tell us how our clothes fit us, how our body is whether healthy or emaciated. All these we get the honest opinions of those who love us, those who care for us and makes our happiness paramount.

What is Love?

Love is a set of emotions, behaviors, and beliefs with strong feelings of affection. So, for example, a person might say he or she loves his or her dog, loves freedom, or loves God. The concept of love may become an unimaginable thing and also it may happen to each person in a particular way.

Love has a variety of feelings, emotions, and attitude. For someone love is more than just being interested physically in another one, rather it is an emotional attachment. We can say love is more of a feeling that a person feels for another person. Therefore, the basic meaning of love is to feel more than liking towards someone.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Need of Love

We know that the desire to love and care for others is a hard-wired and deep-hearted because the fulfillment of this wish increases the happiness level. Expressing love for others benefits not just the recipient of affection, but also the person who delivers it. The need to be loved can be considered as one of our most basic and fundamental needs.

One of the forms that this need can take is contact comfort. It is the desire to be held and touched. So there are many experiments showing that babies who are not having contact comfort, especially during the first six months, grow up to be psychologically damaged.

Significance of Love

Love is as critical for the mind and body of a human being as oxygen. Therefore, the more connected you are, the healthier you will be physically as well as emotionally. It is also true that the less love you have, the level of depression will be more in your life. So, we can say that love is probably the best antidepressant.

It is also a fact that the most depressed people don’t love themselves and they do not feel loved by others. They also become self-focused and hence making themselves less attractive to others.

Society and Love

It is a scientific fact that society functions better when there is a certain sense of community. Compassion and love are the glue for society. Hence without it, there is no feeling of togetherness for further evolution and progress. Love , compassion, trust and caring we can say that these are the building blocks of relationships and society.

Relationship and Love

A relationship is comprised of many things such as friendship , sexual attraction , intellectual compatibility, and finally love. Love is the binding element that keeps a relationship strong and solid. But how do you know if you are in love in true sense? Here are some symptoms that the emotion you are feeling is healthy, life-enhancing love.

Love is the Greatest Wealth in Life

Love is the greatest wealth in life because we buy things we love for our happiness. For example, we build our dream house and purchase a favorite car to attract love. Being loved in a remote environment is a better experience than been hated even in the most advanced environment.

Love or Money

Love should be given more importance than money as love is always everlasting. Money is important to live, but having a true companion you can always trust should come before that. If you love each other, you will both work hard to help each other live an amazing life together.

Love has been a vital reason we do most things in our life. Before we could know ourselves, we got showered by it from our close relatives like mothers , fathers , siblings, etc. Thus love is a unique gift for shaping us and our life. Therefore, we can say that love is a basic need of life. It plays a vital role in our life, society, and relation. It gives us energy and motivation in a difficult time. Finally, we can say that it is greater than any other thing in life.

Customize your course in 30 seconds

Which class are you in.

• Travelling Essay
• Picnic Essay
• Our Country Essay
• My Parents Essay
• Essay on Favourite Personality
• Essay on Memorable Day of My Life
• Essay on Knowledge is Power
• Essay on Gurpurab
• Essay on My Favourite Season
• Essay on Types of Sports

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Download the App

Home — Essay Samples — Life — Family — Love

Essays on Love

Hook examples for love essays, anecdotal hook.

Love, as I have come to understand, is more than a feeling; it's a force that has shaped the course of my life. Join me on a journey through the depths and complexities of this powerful emotion.

Question Hook

What is the true nature of love? Is it an unexplainable chemistry between two people or a profound connection that transcends words? Exploring the concept of love opens the door to a world of wonder.

Quotation Hook

""Love is an endless act of forgiveness. Forgiveness is the key to action and freedom."" These words from Maya Angelou remind us of the transformative power of love and forgiveness in our lives.

Types of Love Hook

Love wears many faces, from romantic love to platonic, familial, and self-love. Delve into the different types of love and their unique qualities that define our human experience.

Love and Relationships Hook

What is the secret to a lasting and meaningful relationship? Explore the dynamics of love in the context of relationships and the role it plays in our connections with others.

The Science of Love Hook

Peek into the fascinating world of neurochemistry and psychology to uncover the science behind love. How do our brains and bodies respond to this extraordinary emotion?

Love's Impact on Art and Culture Hook

Throughout history, love has inspired countless works of art, music, and literature. Analyze the profound influence of love on our cultural expressions and creative endeavors.

Personal Narrative: When I Fall in Love

Stop kiss play summary, made-to-order essay as fast as you need it.

Each essay is customized to cater to your unique preferences

+ experts online

Love in My Life: a Reflection

Unpacking the complex emotion of love: a philosophical inquiry, the time i loved the wrong person, a love letter to my eternal soulmate, let us write you an essay from scratch.

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

A World Without Love: The Ramifications of an Affectionless Society in 1984

Love yourself challenge, "a sacrifice for love, a true tragic story of young lovers, get a personalized essay in under 3 hours.

Expert-written essays crafted with your exact needs in mind

A Letter from The Girl Who Loves You

Where to: experience love at first sip, love and adultery in "the lady with the dog" by anton chekhov, nothing gonna change my love for you, true connection and essence of love, how sun love moon, the portrayal and role of the concept of love in the handmaid's tale, the meaning of family to me, my experience growing up from broken family, how does music communicate emotion, a letter to my mother, foundation and light of home, my ideal partner: a personal reflection on relationships, the relationship between science and love in tom stoppard’s "arcadia", elton john and david furnish: long-lasted love story, transcend boundary of time and space, mansoor ali khan and sharmila tagore - love story of lifetime, social status relation to love and chance in 'marivaux', not every lose is a lose, sex and sexuality in the unbearable lightness of being, relevant topics.

• Parenting Styles
• Family Values
• Foster Care
• Marriage and Family

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

• Admission help
• Custom essay help
• Writing assignment
• College essay
• Coursework writing
• Custom writing
• Dissertation writing
• Homework help
• Personal statement
• Proofreading
• School papers
• Speech writing
• Thesis help
• Lab report writing
• Ghostwriting
• Book report
• Book review
• Movie review
• Testimonials
• 1-929-999-5210 Copied!
• Write my essay

Personal Essay on Love Is All You Need

Essay about love: love is all you need.

Love is definitely one of the most powerful feelings that people can ever experience in their lives. Although different people perceive what is love differently, it has been inspiring for everybody, giving hope and the sense of life for people for thousands of years, and its role has never been diminished. Apart from this very essay about love, dozens of thousands of literary works have been written in its honor, and it is still a source of inspiration for people of all ages and backgrounds. Thus, it is not surprising for us to hear the words “Love is all you need”.

For me, love is definitely all I need. I love my family, my country and my life. I am sure that with time I will find a beloved husband who will fill my life with joy. And of course, we will have kids who will make our lives meaningful. This is the reality, for which I live, and for which I try to improve myself every day. The thought of such perspective brings a smile to my face in the morning and in the evening, and, of course during the day.

To tell you the truth, I don’t understand those people who constantly complain about their life. To my mind, they just don’t know what real love is. Yes, they may have experienced it and it can even be another source of their depression, but to my mind, this kind of love was just not true. The true feeling makes people really happy. Of course, there are exceptions, but I am sure that in the majority of cases it is people themselves who are guilty of their misery.

To sum up, I should say that…

Do you want to get a custom personal essay about love written for you from scratch by real masters of their craft? Place an order now, and a professional writer will compose a state-of-the-art original essay in just 3 hours or less!

Order Your Own Unique Essay!

This essay intro has been used by many students, but we can write you a perfect new one!

Order Here!

• Relationships

Are You in Love with Love?

How to tell if you’re a love addict..

Posted February 25, 2010

• Why Relationships Matter
• Find a therapist to strengthen relationships

Here's a quick quiz:

Did you once think that if only someone loved you in that "special way" you would be happy for the rest of your life?

Were you/Are you preoccupied with the notions of love as expressed in music, movies and fiction?

Have you ever tried to talk yourself into loving someone you weren't particularly fond of because you needed the love NOW?

Have you felt the need to prop up or do a total makeover on your partner early on in your relationship rather than admit that he/she wasn't right for you and end it?

Have you stayed in a bad relationship or repeatedly returned to an ex-partner because you couldn't stand to be alone?

When you are in a committed relationship do you wonder if you chose the RIGHT one or fantasize about a lover from your past, thinking you should have kept him or her and then you would be happier?

Have you used the words "soul mate" in reference to how love should be?

Since age 18 what is the longest period of time you were totally unattached and not fretting about some love interest?

Are you able to take the time necessary to heal and do a thorough post mortem on a failed relationship before running out to find a new "friend" which quickly becomes a rebound lover?

Do you expect your lover to make you feel loved and lovable?

I won't ask you to score or rate yourself. You know who you are!

Don't feel too badly about it. I was a member of the love addicts club for a good portion of my life as well. I too was in love with love.

I have built my career on this issue, working with ordinary people who are lost when it comes to finding and sustaining a healthy relationship, stuck in a cycle of pain and disappointment in others and themselves.

They believe that either they just can't find the right one or that the early infatuation waned and they are no longer "in love". Some jump from one relationship to another in search of that wonderful feeling they once had. Others stay, despite feeling dissatisfied, harboring secret thoughts of leaving, cultivating emotional affairs, or cheating from time to time, having no clue about the real problem.

In my experience the most difficult love addicts to help have been those who actually develop committed relationships with two or more people at the same time.

What a dilemma, they say! Who should I pick? They really believe that the only problem they have is deciding who would be the best choice.

The causes of love addiction are fairly easy to identify - inadequate or inconsistent nurturing, low self esteem , absence of positive role models for committed relationships and indoctrination with cultural images of perfect romantic love and happily ever after endings.

Unfortunately, knowing why you do it isn't much help. Having the information or insight cannot change the unconscious drive to attach at all costs. After the end of a bad relationship my clients have said things like:

"Wrong guy! I'll never do that again. I'm going to find someone who is nothing like this one."

"I am not interested in dating . I just want to have someone to spend time with now and then."

"I'm going to go slowly next time around."

Here are few truths about Love Addiction and what is most likely to happen if you have not processed and grown from your painful experiences.

1. If you are looking for the opposite of the last one, just remember that the opposite of Sick is Sick. When we rebound, we go to the other extreme and end up in the same place.

2. Your new "friend" will be your next lover and it will turn out the same way the last one did.

3. Just saying you will go slowly doesn't work when hormones kick in and infatuation starts making the decisions. Infatuated love is blind.

Truth is: Wherever you go, there you are.

The problem is your pattern, not who you are with. How do you break the love addiction pattern?

1. STOP what you are doing and stand back to observe your own behavior. Take an inventory of your dysfunctional pattern in your current and past relationships. Write it down. Be honest without blaming anyone else for your choices. Unless you are in a committed relationship, do not engage in any potentially romantic interactions for at least 6 months. That includes no texting, emailing, online dating sites, hook ups, introductions by well intentioned friends and family.

2. As you do your inventory look for the common themes in your relationships. Does there appear to be a similarity between your childhood experiences and your choices as an adult? If so, it is no accident!

3. If you are not in a relationship right now, consider getting professional help with your self evaluation before you begin your search again. If you are in a relationship, unless you are being abused, don't make any decisions or demands until you look at yourself honestly.

4. Ask yourself how life would be if you took responsibility for your own happiness , successes and failures and loved yourself the way you want to be loved.

5. Make a plan and follow through on a daily basis. You will be lonely , sad and frustrated at times but in the end you will have the most valuable gift of all. You will know and love yourself. Only then can you choose well and have the real, albeit imperfect relationship you deserve.

6. As an act of love that will last a life time, accept yourself and the one you love AS IS. It may not come with a big red bow but it is one thing you can be sure everyone wants.

Additional important notes:

Addiction can be defined in a general way as a compulsive (repeated action without choice) and chronic (ongoing over time) pattern of using a substance or behavior for soothing, comforting and/or arousal as a means of medicating uncomfortable feelings.

Addicts typically continue use of their "drug of choice" despite negative consequences. Sex addiction is a compulsive pattern of pursuing sexual arousal independent of emotional attachments. Love addiction is a little harder to define simply because by nature we are all addicted to love - meaning we want it, seek it and have a hard time not thinking about it. We need attachment to survive and we instinctively seek connection, especially romantic connection. There is nothing dysfunctional about wanting love.

Love addiction however, is a compulsive, chronic craving and/or pursuit of romantic love in an effort to get our sense of security and worth from another person. During infatuation we believe we have that security only to be disappointed and empty again once the intensity fades. The negative consequences can be severe and yet the love addict continues to hang on to the belief that true love will fix everything.

Ann Smith is the author of the books Grandchildren of Alcoholics and Overcoming Perfectionism.

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Online Therapy
• United States
• Brooklyn, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington, DC
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Child Development
• Self Tests NEW
• Therapy Center
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

At any moment, someone’s aggravating behavior or our own bad luck can set us off on an emotional spiral that threatens to derail our entire day. Here’s how we can face our triggers with less reactivity so that we can get on with our lives.

• Emotional Intelligence
• Gaslighting
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

• Essay Samples
• College Essay
• Writing Tools
• Writing guide

Creative samples from the experts

↑ Return to Essay Samples

Definition Essay: Love

Love is something that means very different things to different people. For some, love can be purely romantic, or even purely sexual. For others, real love is utterly unconditional and only truly exists between family members, or between people and a deity. And for some people, love is fluid, ever changing, and everywhere, and is felt for family, friends, partners, pets, and even inanimate objects, dead artists, and fictional characters. None of these people would be right or wrong, but one thing is certain: love is the most powerful force in the entire universe.

Between partners of any description, be they married or cohabiting, boyfriend and girlfriend, straight or gay, young or old, love is a relationship of mutual understanding and respect. Marriages and partnerships are often built on common ground that people find when they first meet; this can be as deep as sharing religious, philosophical or religious beliefs, or as simple as finding that you love the same film, book, or band.

This kind of love is often reliant on some kind of ‘chemistry’: that strange feeling that they give you in the pit of your stomach, and the feeling that nothing in the world is more important to you than enjoying the moment you’re in together. Some people feel that they experience love at first sight, where they know from the minute they set eyes on each other that they want to to be with that person, but something built on common interests and understanding must be stronger.

A parent’s love for a child can also often be described as love at first sight, but this is very strong because it comes from a natural instinct to protect our offspring. This love can often start before the baby is even born: you only have to look at the pride and excitement of many parents-to-be when they have their scans and feel their baby kick for the very first time. This kind of love is also felt by a child for its mother; it is unconditional for at least the first few years of life, and can also be felt between siblings.

It is the strength of this feeling that makes love the most powerful emotion that most of us will ever experience. People can do some dreadful things out of hate and fear, but love can push us to do much, much worse. And it is often love that can cause us to hate, whether it’s out of jealousy, or anger because our loved one has been hurt. Love, ultimately, is a sacrifice, whatever the relationship, and it must be the most powerful force in the universe because as human beings, we make true sacrifices for nothing less.

Follow Us on Social Media

Get more free essays

Send via email

Most useful resources for students:.

• Free Essays Download
• Writing Tools List
• Proofreading Services
• Universities Rating

Contributors Bio

Find more useful services for students

Free plagiarism check, professional editing, online tutoring, free grammar check.

• TV & Audio
• New Republic
• Essays in Love

Essays in Love  is a novel about two young people, who meet on an airplane between London and Paris and rapidly fall in love. The structure of the story isn’t unusual, but what lends the book its interest is the extraordinary depth with which the emotions involved in the relationship are analysed. Love comes under the philosophical microscope. An entire chapter is devoted to the nuances and subtexts of an initial date. Another chapter mulls over the question of how and when to say ‘I love you’. There’s an essay on how uncomfortable it can be to disagree with a lover’s taste in shoes and a lengthy discussion about the role of guilt in love.

The book is an intriguing blend of novel and non-fiction. As in a novel, there are characters and realistic settings, but these are blended in with a host of more abstract ideas. The book has attracted a particular following among those who have recently fallen in love ­- or come out of a relationship.

Comments are closed.

• A Therapeutic Journey
• The Course of Love
• The News: A User’s Manual
• Art as Therapy
• How To Think More About Sex
• Religion for Atheists
• The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work
• A Week at the Airport
• The Architecture of Happiness
• Status Anxiety
• The Art of Travel
• The Consolations of Philosophy
• How Proust Can Change Your Life

Other ventures

Join alain’s newsletter mailing list.

You can read the full Privacy Policy here

Privacy Policy | © 2018

Essay: Einstein In Love

A lbert Einstein, conceivably the last good man in this deconstructed century of failed gods and crumpled myths, is in woman trouble. A small band of scholars is claiming that much of the early work that made him famous, including, perhaps, the theory of relativity, should have been credited to his wife. The accusation would sound comical if it weren’t tragic. This is Einstein, our most revered symbol of genius. We’ve all grown up with the vision of the humble patent examiner who overturned physics, with his corona of white hair and the sad deep eyes that have seen further than you can look. In our minds he floats like a sockless tumbleweed above the grit of mundane life. Behind the face we all recognize is a man we do not know.

Even physicists fall in love. If I were casting her in a movie, I would pick someone dark and sultry like Marlee Matlin, a little mysterious with an angry, damaged air. She has a slight limp — do we know why? A childhood accident? Family tragedy? Does he find it sexy, affecting? Mileva Maric was a dark- haired Serbian woman who dreamed of being a physicist, a pre-feminist fighter, 21 when she entered the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. There she met Albert Einstein, a 17-year-old bohemian with thick curly hair and dark, warm eyes, bedroom eyes. They became lovers, sharing classes, textbooks and his father’s disapproval. In 1902 they had an illegitimate daughter, who disappeared. Albert and Mileva married. Revolution was in the air, and they were the first modern couple. For pillow talk they had electrodynamics and atomic kinetics. In 1905 Einstein published a trio of brilliant papers in a single issue of the journal Annalen der Physik, among them the theory of relativity with its subversive notions of elastic space- time and interchangeable matter and energy. Another elucidated the quantum theory of light; still another a proof of the existence of atoms. You could say the 20th century was born in those pages.

His fame rocketed. She sank into his shadow, a housewife with two sons to raise, while he pursued general relativity — the notion that gravity could be explained as “curved” space-time. They separated in 1914 and eventually divorced. As part of his alimony, he promised his future Nobel Prize money and delivered three years later. Einstein remarried and moved to America. Mileva and the kids were on their own. One son died in a mental institution, unvisited by his father; the other became an engineering professor. Mileva died in 1948, never having published a scientific paper under her own name.

The movie ends, a bitter drama. Einstein’s biographers brushed her off as a gloomy Slav and a sloppy housekeeper, not quite bright enough to follow her husband into the new world of relativity, as if she deserved obscurity.

In 1987 his letters to her were published. Yes, love letters. But at least some of the language in those letters makes Albert and Mileva sound like research partners: “How happy and proud,” he wrote in 1901, “I will be when the two of us together will have brought our work on the relative motion ((relativity)) to a victorious conclusion!” Our work?

The idea of Mileva as collaborator can be made to fit like a key into certain puzzles, such as why Einstein never explained where he got the idea for relativity. Meanwhile, Mileva Maric had to be anything but a dunce in order to get into the Swiss Polytechnic, the M.I.T. of Central Europe. The most provocative piece of evidence is also the most disputed. According to a Yugoslav biography of Maric, Russian physicist Abram Joffe, now dead, claimed that he had seen the original 1905 papers and that they were signed Einstein- Maric. If so, those were the only ones she ever signed.

Is this enough to rewrite history? Was Einstein a fraud or just a lousy husband? Would that we could decide. Consider the psychohistorical fun scholars could have with the implications that a woman discovered relativity — does it have anything to do with the traditional female emphasis on relationships and distrust of male absolutes? The Einstein experts are unconvinced. At worst, they say, Einstein was a lousy husband. The fact is that we will never know; Albert and Mileva have fallen into some Pynchonesque black hole of history that claims the dead. The longer we think about them, the more uncertain everything becomes. Einstein will forever after be a little more mortal, and that’s good.

Women have suffered a double blow from the Einstein fiasco. First a possible heroine and role model, Mileva Maric, was lost. Then the agent of that loss was turned around and used as a club against them. Einstein’s legacy was style as much as substance. The absentminded, frizzed-out dreamer has become the archetype of male genius. “Don’t bother Daddy. He’s busy working on the space-time continuum.” Substitute “novel,” “fast ball” or “takeover plan” for the end of that statement, and you have the image of the lone genius. Genius needs a little slack; we all want to be Einstein. In Western civilization, a man is not a man who is not stiff-arming some woman who wants a commitment and riding alone into the sunset to Do What He Must Do, leaving her behind to clean up — and show up with hot soup when things get really bad.

Every revolution has limits. Einstein was an ordinary man. He could see past space and time, yes, but not sex. Not all Einstein’s learning nor his liberalism could keep him from making of Mileva what every other man made of his woman: a housewife, helpmate and addendum to his own identity.

So let us not mourn the loss of a plaster saint. That saint, the venerated one with the windblown corona, was a dried husk. The man who had the great thoughts and spun the strange theories that inspired that veneration was young, full of vigor and turbulence and passion. He was hardly alone; all his organs worked as well as his brain. His household was squirming with babies when he began his greatest work, on general relativity. Einstein’s physics flourished not in the absence of life but in its fullness. His scientific life blossomed at the same time as the rest of his life. When he was in love.

More Must-Reads from TIME

• Javier Milei’s Radical Plan to Transform Argentina
• The New Face of Doctor Who
• How Private Donors Shape Birth-Control Choices
• What Happens if Trump Is Convicted ? Your Questions, Answered
• The Deadly Digital Frontiers at the Border
• Scientists Are Finding Out Just How Toxic Your Stuff Is
• The 31 Most Anticipated Movies of Summer 2024
• Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Contact us at [email protected]

Live updates: Editor-vetted Memorial Day deals — up to 75% off Apple, Dyson Beauty, more

• TODAY Plaza
• Share this —

• Watch Full Episodes
• Read With Jenna
• Inspirational
• Relationships
• TODAY Table
• Newsletters
• Start TODAY
• Shop TODAY Awards
• Citi Concert Series
• Listen All Day

Follow today

More Brands

• On The Show

60 love quotes for him that will warm his heart

Love is notoriously difficult to describe.

To borrow a line from “Persuasion” by Jane Austen, “If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more.”

If you struggle to find the words to express your love, you're far from alone. Many artists and writers have dedicated their entire careers to capturing that sentiment.

Luckily, that means you have a wealth of material to draw on for your next message to your husband , boyfriend, or beau.

From literature to song lyrics, you can find the perfect romantic quote that will make your sweetheart swoon.

Add a tender love song like Alicia Keys' “If I Ain’t Got You” to your shared playlist, or sing the lyrics live to your hubby. (He'll either love it, or laugh — either way you'll make his day.)

Impress your film buff boyfriend with famous love quotes from movies . Who doesn't adore the iconic line "When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible" from "When Harry Met Sally"?

Your beloved bookworm will cherish a sweet text from you with a quote from one of literature's greatest love stories.

Here are some of the best love quotes for him from books, movies , and music.

Best love quotes

• “In all the world, there is no heart for me like yours. In all the world, there is no love for you like mine.” — Maya Angelou
• “I hope it’s okay if I love you forever.” — Ally Maine, “A Star Is Born” 
• “Nobody has ever measured, even poets, how much a heart can hold.” — Zelda Fitzgerald
• “For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.” ― Judy Garland
• “Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.” — Zora Neale Hurston

• “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...I could walk through my garden forever.” — Alfred Tennyson, “Queen Mary” 
• “If you remember me, then I don’t care if everyone else forgets.” ― Haruki Murakami, “Kafka on the Shore”
• “If you find someone you love in your life, then hang on to that love.” —   Princess Diana
• “Love is but the discovery of ourselves in others, and the delight in the recognition.” — Alexander Smith
• “This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love: the more they give, the more they possess.” — Rainer Maria Rilke

• “Never mind. The self is the least of it. Let our scars fall in love.” — Galway Kinnell
• “To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides.” — David Viscott
• “A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love.” — Max Müller
• “Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone — we find it with another.” — Thomas Merton
• “Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.” — Robert A. Heinlein

Love quotes from movies

• “You are my greatest adventure.” — Mr. Incredible, “The Incredibles”
• “I like you very much, just as you are.” — Mark Darcy, “Bridget Jones’s Diary”
• “That moment, when you kiss someone and everything around becomes hazy and the only thing in focus is you and this person and you realize that that person is the only person that you’re supposed to kiss for the rest of your life.” — Josie Geller, “Never Been Kissed”
• “You had me at ‘hello.’” — Dorothy Boyd, “Jerry Maguire”
•  “What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I’ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.” ― George Bailey, “It’s A Wonderful Life”

• “When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.” — Harry Burns, “When Harry Met Sally”
• “I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.” — Anna Scott, “Notting Hill” 
• “The heart is not like a box that gets filled up; it expands in size the more you love.” — Samantha, “Her” 
• “To me, you are perfect.” — Mark, “Love Actually”
• “I’m scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I’m with you.” — Baby Houseman, “Dirty Dancing”

Love quotes from books

• “I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.” — John Green, “The Fault in Our Stars”
• “I swear I couldn’t love you more than I do right now, and yet I know I will tomorrow.” — Leo Christopher, “Sleeping in Chairs”
• “In case you ever foolishly forget: I am never not thinking of you.” ― Virginia Woolf, “Selected Diaries”
• “You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.” ― Margaret Mitchell, “Gone with the Wind”
• “Love is not just looking at each other, it’s looking in the same direction.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “Wind, Sand and Stars”

• “Who, being loved, is poor? Oh, no one. I hate my riches. They are a burden...” ― Oscar Wilde, “A Woman of No Importance”
• “I am nothing special, of this I am sure. I am a common man with common thoughts and I’ve led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but I’ve loved another with all my heart and soul, and to me, this has always been enough..” ― Nicholas Sparks, “The Notebook”
• “I wish you to know you have been the last dream of my soul.” — Charles Dickens, “A Tale of Two Cities”
• “You are my heart, my life, my one and only thought.” ― Arthur Conan Doyle, “The White Company”
• “My heart is, and always will be, yours.” ― Jane Austen, “Sense and Sensibility”

• “Every atom of your flesh is as dear to me as my own: in pain and sickness it would still be dear. Your mind is my treasure, and if it were broken, it would be my treasure still.” ― Charlotte Brontë, “Jane Eyre”
• “In vain I have struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.” — Jane Austen, “Pride and Prejudice”
• “To love or have loved, that is enough. Ask nothing further. There is no other pearl to be found in the dark folds of life.” ― Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables”
• “The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. And that’s what you’ve given me. That’s what I’d hoped to give you forever” ― Nicholas Sparks, “The Notebook”
• “Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.” — Emily Brontë, “Wuthering Heights” 

Love quotes from songs

• “Your love is better than ice cream.” — Sarah McLachlan, “Ice”
• “I will be the one to kiss you at night / I will love you until the end of time.” — Beyoncé, “End of Time”
• “Now, you’re lifting me up ’stead of holding me down / Stealing my heart ’stead of stealing my crown.” — Kacey Musgraves, “Butterflies” 
• “I hope you don’t mind that I put down in words how wonderful life is while you’re in the world.” — Elton John, "Your Song"
• “When you say you love me, know I love you more.” — Miley Cyrus, “Adore You” 

• “Whenever I’m alone with you, You make me feel like I am home again.” — The Cure, “Lovesong” 
• “Take me to your heart, for it’s there that I belong.” — Elvis Presley, “Love Me Tender” 
• “When you put your arms around me, you let me know there’s nothing in this world I can’t do.” — Keith Urban, “Somebody Like You”
• “You are the best thing, that’s ever been mine.” — Taylor Swift, “Mine” 
• “If you fall I will catch you, I’ll be waiting, time after time.” — Cyndi Lauper, “Time After Time” 

• “Some day, when I’m awfully low, when the world is cold, I will feel a glow just thinking of you and the way you look tonight.” — Frank Sinatra, “The Way You Look Tonight” 
• “I can’t fall in love without you.” — Zara Larsson, “I Can’t Fall In Love Without You”
• “But nothing’s greater than the rush that comes with your embrace / And in this world of loneliness, I see your face.” — Leona Lewis, “Bleeding Love” 
• “You’re still the one I run to, the one that I belong to. You’re still the one I want for life.” — Shania Twain, “You’re Still The One” 
• “It’s you, it’s you, it’s all for you, everything I do. I tell you all the time, Heaven is a place on Earth with you.” — Lana Del Rey, “Video Games” 

• “And when you smile, the whole world stops and stares for a while…” — Bruno Mars, “Just The Way You Are” 
• “And I’d give up forever to touch you, ’cause I know that you feel me somehow. You’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be and I don’t wanna go home right now.” — Goo Goo Dolls, “Iris” 
• “Before the day I met you, life was so unkind. But you’re the key to my peace of mind.” — Aretha Franklin, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman"
• “Some people want it all / But I don’t want nothin’ at all / If it ain’t you, baby / If I ain’t got you, baby.” — Alicia Keys, “If I Ain’t Got You”
• “At last, my love has come along / My lonely days are over / And life is like a song.”— Etta James, “At Last”

More ways to express your love

• 50 love quotes from movies that will have you at 'hello'
• 55 quotes about marriage that range from romantic to oh-so-honest
• 90 relationship quotes for every love story
• 101 best Valentine’s Day quotes to put your feelings into words

Sarah Fielding , MS, is an acclaimed journalist focusing on mental health, gender rights, and social issues. She's also the co-founder of  Empire Coven , a space for highlighting trailblazing women across New York. She has written for The Washington Post, The New York Times, Insider, Verywell, The Guardian and more. 

What is ‘boyfriend air’? How your relationship can impact your appearance

Relationships.

Who is Sofia Richie’s husband? Everything to know about Elliot Grainge

Pop culture.

I’m living with the ghost of my husband’s first wife

Want to pop the question live on TODAY?

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck's relationship timeline

Know a deserving couple who needs help with wedding planning?

Bride, 88, finally gets to wear wedding dress, veil as she marries her first crush

Women's health.

Jenna Bush Hager and husband Henry’s relationship timeline, in their own words

Jenna Lyons says she’s ready to walk down the aisle: ‘Hard to ignore the ring on my finger’

Justin Bieber and Hailey Bieber's relationship timeline, in their own words

Your Best College Essay

Maybe you love to write, or maybe you don’t. Either way, there’s a chance that the thought of writing your college essay is making you sweat. No need for nerves! We’re here to give you the important details on how to make the process as anxiety-free as possible.

What's the College Essay?

When we say “The College Essay” (capitalization for emphasis – say it out loud with the capitals and you’ll know what we mean) we’re talking about the 550-650 word essay required by most colleges and universities. Prompts for this essay can be found on the college’s website, the Common Application, or the Coalition Application. We’re not talking about the many smaller supplemental essays you might need to write in order to apply to college. Not all institutions require the essay, but most colleges and universities that are at least semi-selective do.

How do I get started?

Look for the prompts on whatever application you’re using to apply to schools (almost all of the time – with a few notable exceptions – this is the Common Application). If one of them calls out to you, awesome! You can jump right in and start to brainstorm. If none of them are giving you the right vibes, don’t worry. They’re so broad that almost anything you write can fit into one of the prompts after you’re done. Working backwards like this is totally fine and can be really useful!

What if I have writer's block?

You aren’t alone. Staring at a blank Google Doc and thinking about how this is the one chance to tell an admissions officer your story can make you freeze. Thinking about some of these questions might help you find the right topic:

• What is something about you that people have pointed out as distinctive?
• If you had to pick three words to describe yourself, what would they be? What are things you’ve done that demonstrate these qualities?
• What’s something about you that has changed over your years in high school? How or why did it change?
• What’s something you like most about yourself?
• What’s something you love so much that you lose track of the rest of the world while you do it?

If you’re still stuck on a topic, ask your family members, friends, or other trusted adults: what’s something they always think about when they think about you? What’s something they think you should be proud of? They might help you find something about yourself that you wouldn’t have surfaced on your own.  

How do I grab my reader's attention?

It’s no secret that admissions officers are reading dozens – and sometimes hundreds – of essays every day. That can feel like a lot of pressure to stand out. But if you try to write the most unique essay in the world, it might end up seeming forced if it’s not genuinely you. So, what’s there to do? Our advice: start your essay with a story. Tell the reader about something you’ve done, complete with sensory details, and maybe even dialogue. Then, in the second paragraph, back up and tell us why this story is important and what it tells them about you and the theme of the essay.

THE WORD LIMIT IS SO LIMITING. HOW DO I TELL A COLLEGE MY WHOLE LIFE STORY IN 650 WORDS?

Don’t! Don’t try to tell an admissions officer about everything you’ve loved and done since you were a child. Instead, pick one or two things about yourself that you’re hoping to get across and stick to those. They’ll see the rest on the activities section of your application.

I'M STUCK ON THE CONCLUSION. HELP?

If you can’t think of another way to end the essay, talk about how the qualities you’ve discussed in your essays have prepared you for college. Try to wrap up with a sentence that refers back to the story you told in your first paragraph, if you took that route.

SHOULD I PROOFREAD MY ESSAY?

YES, proofread the essay, and have a trusted adult proofread it as well. Know that any suggestions they give you are coming from a good place, but make sure they aren’t writing your essay for you or putting it into their own voice. Admissions officers want to hear the voice of you, the applicant. Before you submit your essay anywhere, our number one advice is to read it out loud to yourself. When you read out loud you’ll catch small errors you may not have noticed before, and hear sentences that aren’t quite right.

ANY OTHER ADVICE?

Be yourself. If you’re not a naturally serious person, don’t force formality. If you’re the comedian in your friend group, go ahead and be funny. But ultimately, write as your authentic (and grammatically correct) self and trust the process.

And remember, thousands of other students your age are faced with this same essay writing task, right now. You can do it!

site categories

• Johnny Wactor’s ‘General Hospital’ TV Wife Sofia Mattsson Remembers Co-Star: “My Heart Is So Utterly Broken”

Lizzo Reacts To ‘South Park’ Joke Referencing Her As Ozempic Alternative: “I Really Showed The World How To Love Yourself”

By Armando Tinoco

Armando Tinoco

Night & Weekend Editor

More Stories By Armando

• Ted Sarandos Regrets Comparing Netflix To HBO & Why He’s Not Interested In The “Breaking News” Business
• ’13 Reasons Why’ Actor Dylan Minnette On Why He Quit Acting: “It Was Starting To Feel Like Just A Job”

Lizzo is reacting to South Park ‘s reference to her in their special episode about weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro.

The body positivity singer took to social media to blindly react to the special titled South Park: The End of Obesity , sharing her thoughts on being mentioned by the long-running animated series.

“Guys, my worst fear has been actualized. I’ve been referenced in a South Park episode. I’m so scared,” she said in a video posted on Instagram .

Related Stories

'South Park: The End Of Obesity' Sets Paramount+ Premiere Date - Watch The Teaser

Megan Thee Stallion & Roc Nation Sued Over Unpaid Wages & Alleged Backseat Sex Action By 'Mean Girls' Actress & Another Woman

“FDA-approved Lizzo makes you feel good about your weight, and it costs 90% less than Ozempic. … In case studies, 70% of patients on Lizzo no longer cared how much they weighed,” the voiceover in the fake commercial for the drug said on the show. “Lizzo helps you eat everything you want and keep physical activity to a minimum.”

Following the parody, Lizzo said, “That’s crazy. I just feel like, damn, I’m really that bitch. I really showed the world how to love yourself and not give a f*** to the point where these men in Colorado know who the f*** I am and put it on their cartoon that’s been around for 25 years. I’m really that bitch and I show you how to not give a f*** and I’ll keep showing you how to not give a f***.”

Watch Lizzo’s full reaction in the video below.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Lizzo (@lizzobeeating)

Must Read Stories

George lucas feted; neon five in a row; analysis; gerwig; more.

Sean Baker’s ‘Anora’ Scoops Top Award; Prizes For ‘Emilia Perez’ & More

‘furiosa’ up in smoke with $31m, ‘garfield’ could upset, how worried should hollywood be, loan out corporations could end, iatse tells members.

Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.

Read More About:

Deadline is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Deadline Hollywood, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Ask Amy: Widower finds new love with a married neighbor

A widower finds love again but she’s married and her husband has no idea what’s going on.

Dear Amy: After my spouse of over 40 years died last year, I have moved forward in my life in a positive manner.

I am having a relationship with a married woman (“Brenda”). As a widower, I have found this to be very helpful. Brenda’s adult son and daughter have supported her in allowing this relationship to continue and grow. Brenda’s husband is clueless to everything going on. Brenda and I enjoy our time together and we have very long phone calls, and we have a very exciting sexual relationship.

Her house is across the street, and she has her own bedroom separate from her husband. He is distant, withdrawn, and very unsociable. Brenda doesn’t want to leave her house and move in with me because her daughter and granddaughter are also living in the home with her.

At what point should Brenda’s husband be clued into this development, and what approach should we take to “clear the air” at some point?

Archie: I appreciate the fact that you believe you are moving onward “in a positive manner” after your loss, but I would ask you to reconsider the meaning of the word “positive,” and at least acknowledge the possible negative consequences your and “Brenda’s” behavior might have on others.

You don't offer any real clues about Brenda's husband's status, and I wonder if you and Brenda could consider what course of action will be the least destabilizing for him. He might be withdrawn and unsociable, but he is the innocent party here, and his life might be turned upside down if he and Brenda split.

Using the modern vernacular, Brenda might propose that they “open up” their marriage. This is often suggested by a spouse who is already having an affair, but wants to stay married. Might he also want to step out, or would he prefer to maintain a “don't ask, don't tell” sort of arrangement, where he and his wife basically live separate lives under the same roof?

A divorce might take an extreme toll financially, affecting the entire household, but he should be presented with the truth, because he has the right to make some informed choices about his own life. The coziest course might be for Brenda to move across the street to cohabit with you, allowing her husband to stay in his home, but so far she doesn’t seem to want to make any substantial changes in order to be with you.

Dear Amy: My father is serving a long term in prison for a violent crime he committed many years ago. He was hardly the model citizen or dad of the year before his incarceration. I was a teenager when he was convicted and the whole thing consumed a lot of my childhood, but after he was gone, I hate to admit that my life improved a lot.

Although I think about him from time to time, I don’t miss him. Aside from two visits early on, I have not seen him or been in touch. Honestly, I don’t miss him. I have a great husband and we have a 5-year-old son. So this is my son’s grandfather. My son has only asked a couple of times about his grandfather (I think he’s still trying to get family relationships straight).

I know I need to tell him something about my dad, but I don’t know how to do that. Can you help get me started?

— Loving Mom

Mom: Make a choice to tell the truth, but do so in a way that is age-appropriate and simple. We parents tend to ramble and pile on too much detail when we’re nervous. Try not to do this. You can say, “My Dad’s name is John. When I was a kid, my dad broke the law and hurt someone. He had to go to jail for doing that, and he is still in jail.”

Do not portray him as a scary person (you don’t want to scare your son). Answer questions honestly, and if the answer is, “I don’t know,” you can say that.

Dear Amy: The question from “ Holding It ” made me mad. She is disabled and is upset that able-bodied people use the bathroom stall intended for her. Anyone can use these stalls. Is it supposed to stay empty, just in case she comes along?

Upset: I don’t think “Holding It” is asking that the stall stay empty, but that able-bodied people shouldn’t linger. They should be aware that they can use other stalls — and she cannot.

© 2024 by Amy Dickinson. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.

More from Advice

Meghan Leahy: Why one child can be more ‘difficult’ than another

Ask Sahaj: We both have spouses with Alzheimer’s. Is it too early to date?

Carolyn Hax: Facing a lifelong fear is hard. But too hard to do for your child’s sake?

Ask Amy: Parents fret over daughter’s relationship

Miss Manners: Rude remark gets flippant response at cocktail party

Caitlin Clark reminds people she's not just a scorer: 'It's not all about the shots'

LOS ANGELES — In a place where stars are destined to shine, Caitlin Clark had no problem being best supporting actress for the Indiana Fever.

Yes, she definitely stole the show when she hit two ridiculous deep 3-pointers, one of which was the dagger in the 78-73 win over the Los Angeles Sparks on Friday. It’s what the Sparks home-record crowd of 19,103 came to see. But for the majority of the game, she comfortably let everyone else glow in the spotlight, and it was that sound cast that led to the Fever getting their first win in the Clark-era.

"She hit some huge shots, but did everything we needed her to do," Fever coach Christie Sides said of Clark. "She's really focused on really helping us out, getting better on the defensive. I'm really proud of her energy."

In the early stages of the game, Clark struggled to do much as the Sparks had Layshia Clarendon applying pressure and getting help on double teams. By the end of the first quarter, Clark had a +/- rating of -9. With how much defenses have hounded Clark so far this season, it made sense the game was looking like it be a Sparks win. However, it's how she reacted to the adversity that set the team up for success.

What easily gets lost when looking back at Clark's record-breaking college career is she was arguably the most elite passer in all of Division I. She led the country in assists per game and was the sixth player to ever achieve at least 1,000 career assists. She also was a solid glass-cleaner by leading Iowa in rebounds.

All of those elements were on display against the Sparks. Sure she wasn't hitting shots, but more importantly, she wasn't forcing them. When there was lengthy gaps in between her shot attempts, she was finding tight passing lanes that resulted in an easy bucket and the crowd marveling at the pass. She was cleaning up the boards and getting the offense moving efficiently. Put it all together, and she had multiple game-highs with four steals, eight assists and 10 rebounds to go with her 11 points for her first double-double in the WNBA.

"I thought I played a really good game," Clark said. "Whether it was rebounding, finding my teammates. I thought I was really active on defense. I didn't let that bother me and that's something I'm really proud of."

​​It was evident Clark has built chemistry with her frontcourt, something that really helped her thrive at Iowa since defenders were having to harp on limiting her around the perimeter, leaving bigs open right under the basket. Seven of her eight assists on Friday were to her forwards and seven were a made basket within four-feet of the rim.

Temi Fagbenle came off the bench was someone that instantly found a connection with Clark. Three of six made shots came of Clark assists as she erupted for a career-high 17 points. Fagbenle thrived when her guard found her, and it's something she couldn't help but gush about.

"Caitlin's vision is second to none," Fagbenle said. "I love love love playing with a point guard that can just see. A lot of the time, I know I'm open, but I don't know if she knows I'm open, but then she knows to pass the ball."

The common thought since Clark entered the W was that if you're able to limit her scoring, you can chalk the game up as a win. But Clark reminded the entire league she doesn't need to be hitting logo 3s or step backs to leave her mark on the game. She said she's started to feel "pretty comfortable" in the professional ranks and her confidence is going up. If that's the case, then fans are still in for more blockbuster performances.

"I love passing the ball just as much as I love shooting it," Clark said. "When you make a great pass to your teammate, it also opens up everything else for people like myself, people like Kelsey (Mitchell) to have some more space on the outside. The more we can do that, the better off we're going to be."

"It's not all about the shots," she added.

‘Nights like tonight remind me why I love playing basketball’

Friday was a much needed victory for a team that entered the day one of two squads in the league without a win (Washington Mystics). On top of that, the Fever have played a grueling schedule that after their Saturday game against the Las Vegas Aces, they will have played seven games in 12 days.

Even for someone as gifted as Clark, it can be tough navigating the transition to the pros when the expectations are so high. She said something that's made her sad recently is the realization she spends more time speaking to the media than her own family, and she stays off social media to avoid dealing with more outside noise.

"It's a lot for somebody that's 22-years-old. It can be tough at times," Clark said. "Our team is really young. It's difficult navigating this. I absolutely love it more than anything in the world, but I think just getting off social media has been the healthiest thing to do.

"Your mental health is very important. It's important for professional athletes, and it's important for student athletes. It's important for every single person in this world to feel like they have somebody to talk to. I think it's been something we've all been trying to navigate and continues to give ourselves grace."

As tough as its been, Friday gave Clark something other than her first WNBA victory. It also reminded her of why she plays the game as she saw so many people in Los Angeles rooting for her.

"I never want to lose the fun of the game, and nights like tonight remind me why I love playing basketball," Clark said. "You get a win and then you walk off the floor, and there's so many kids, young kids just screaming your name and love getting to watch you. I think it's the little things that remind me every single day why I do this and why I love it."

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Guest Essay

I’m an Indian Muslim, and I’m Scared to Say So

By Mohammad Ali

Mr. Ali, a journalist and writer who focuses on right-wing efforts to transform India into a Hindu nation, wrote from Delhi.

I used to answer the phone with “Salam.” Not anymore. I don’t want people to know I’m a Muslim.

There is little that would identify me as Muslim to begin with, aside from my name. I don’t wear a skullcap, and in public I avoid wearing the loosefitting Pathani kurta and peppering my speech with Urdu words, all of which are identity markers for Indian Muslims. But in the India of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, you can’t take any chances.

For 10 years, Mr. Modi’s Hindu-chauvinist government has vilified the nation’s 200 million Muslims as dangerous undesirables. Recently, he took that rhetoric to a new low during the six weeks of voting in India’s national elections — which are widely expected to win him a third consecutive five-year term — directly referring to Muslims as “infiltrators” in a country that he and his followers seek to turn into a pure Hindu state.

As offensive as that was, it is sadly familiar to Indian Muslims like me who — after a decade of denigration, violence and murder — live in daily fear of being identified and attacked, forcing us into self-denial to protect ourselves.

India is home to one of the world’s largest Muslim populations. Islam came here around 1,300 years ago, and Indian Muslims descend from natives of this land who converted to Islam centuries ago. Many Indian Muslims fought against British colonization, and millions rejected the 1947 partition of the country into a predominantly Hindu India and a mostly Muslim Pakistan. India is our home, and people like me are proud patriots.

But Mr. Modi’s Hindu nationalism has made us the targets in what might be the largest radicalization of people on the planet. Its seeds were planted with the founding in 1925 of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a right-wing Hindu organization that sought the establishment of a fully Hindu state in India and was inspired by the European fascism of that era. When Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party — a political offshoot of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh — won elections in 2014 and he became prime minister, he and his followers saw it as the civilizational moment that Hindus had been waiting for. Mr. Modi was the god-king who would free Hindu civilization from centuries of domination, first by a series of Muslim rulers culminating with the Mughal empire that ruled India for around three centuries and then by the British colonizers who followed.

Islamophobia isn’t new to India, and Muslims also faced prejudice and recurring violence during the generations in which the liberal upper-caste Hindu elite dominated the nation’s secular democratic politics. But under Mr. Modi’s right-wing leadership, hatred of Muslims has effectively become state policy. India is now a country where police have been accused of standing by as Hindus attack Muslims , where the killers of religious minorities go unpunished and where Hindu extremists openly call for the genocide of Muslims.

Protest, and you run the risk of having a Hindu mob unleashed on you. That’s what happened after Mr. Modi’s government in 2019 pushed through a citizenship law that discriminates against Muslims and his party promised to expel “infiltrators” from the country. When Indian Muslims protested, one of Mr. Modi’s supporters responded with a provocative speech that is blamed for sparking deadly clashes between Hindus and Muslims in Delhi in February 2020. Police were accused of looking the other way as Muslims had their shops destroyed, were assaulted and were even killed.

Bulldozers have become a symbol of this state terrorism — rolled out at right-wing rallies, tattooed on the arms of Modi supporters and featured in Hindu nationalist songs — because of their use in areas governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party to illegally knock down the homes and businesses of Muslims who dare to speak up. Some states have essentially made Muslim-Hindu relationships illegal, based on an absurd Hindu conspiracy theory that Muslim men are seducing Hindu women as part of a long-term plan to turn India into a Muslim nation.

The liberal Hindu elite, instead of acknowledging its role in enabling the sentiments on which Mr. Modi has capitalized, has done little to help, other than to ineffectually express nostalgia for a lost Hindu tolerance. And there is little that Indian Muslims can do within the political system: Although the Muslim share of India’s population has slowly grown to 14 percent, the percentage of Parliament members who are Muslim has declined to less than 5 percent today, compared with 9 percent in the early 1980s.

The Indian Muslim response to our subjugation has largely been a deafening silence. Many of us are simply unwilling to speak out against the Modi’s government bitter bargain: that for us to exist as Indian citizens, we must meekly accept historical revisionism, dehumanization and demonization.

This debasement, and the knowledge that you are essentially outside the protection of the law, kills something inside you. You take precautions to protect yourself. My mother no longer packs mutton for me to take back to Delhi after I visit her, as she used to. She’s afraid it will be mistaken for beef: Dozens of Muslims have reportedly been killed or assaulted by Hindu mobs on suspicion of killing cows — which are sacred to Hindus — or for eating or possessing beef . Muslim parents now routinely repeat a litany of don’ts to their children: Don’t appear Muslim in public, don’t reveal your name, don’t enter Hindu areas or travel alone and don’t get pulled into any potential confrontation.

While we caution one another to blend in, it’s difficult to reconcile with the whole thing. Each of us has something embedded in our sense of self and expression that is particularly painful to erase. And the sort of physical markers we are trying to hide are not even wholly specific to Muslims in India. My cousin likes to wear his Pathani kurta, but so do many Hindus. My youngest sister prefers to keep her head covered, but so do many Hindu women, although not with a hijab. I’m attached to using certain Urdu words that have long been a feature of India’s syncretic culture and have been used widely by Hindus, too.

Self-denial leads to deep frustration. Now during gatherings with friends and family, we avoid politics; discussing the elephant in the room only reminds us of our helplessness. The cumulative weight of all this has created a mental health crisis of fear and depression among Muslims. Yet because of a desperate shortage of mental health professionals in India and a limited understanding of our new reality by many non-Muslim therapists, many Muslims are left to cope on their own.

I was hesitant to write this essay. I am not supposed to protest, to speak up. When I sometimes do, posting online about it, the typical response is, “Go to Pakistan.” But why would I leave? I am an Indian. I was born here, as were my ancestors who opposed the religious basis of the partition with Pakistan and believed in the Indian ideals of secular democracy.

But many Muslims have fled over the years, emigrating to Australia, Canada, Britain, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Malaysia or elsewhere because of the worsening political climate. Many who can’t afford to emigrate are moving out of the predominantly Hindu or mixed neighborhoods where they lived for decades, to poorer Muslim areas for safety. Two of my Muslim friends and I used to own apartments in a suburban area near New Delhi where many upper-caste Hindus lived. But in 2020, after the discriminatory citizenship law was passed, a Hindu mob charged through the neighborhood baying for Muslim blood. My two friends soon moved out. I kept my apartment, but in the elevator one evening in 2022, I overheard two men discussing how many katua (a derogatory term for Muslims that refers to circumcision) lived in the area. I moved out the next day. Sadly, Hindu friends and colleagues of mine also have become colder and more distant and are dropping out of contact.

On June 1, India’s voting period comes to a close. It looms as a day of dread for Muslims like me. According to most projections, it will be another victory for Mr. Modi — and further validation of mob rule and the debasement of 200 million Muslims by a hubristic Hindu majority.

Mohammad Ali (@hindureporter) is an independent journalist and writer who divides his time between New York and India. He is writing a book on growing up in India as Narendra Modi and his party have sought to transform India into a Hindu nation.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .