Love oh, Love! The formidable love, the unfathomable love! That strong passion that is as ancient as time. Over the centuries, it has been talked about in several forms and ways.

Some are renowned love crooners, others have written about it and other lots, which I choose to describe as unfortunate, have wished and even fantasized about it. Well! Dreams could come true! “Really, lately?”

The same love has built and destroyed the strongest of hearts and walls. Remember the story of Samson and Delilah, Solomon and Sheba, Romeo and Juliet.

You’d be amazed at the seemingly stupid things people do in the fit of passion, some misconstrue as love. Come on! It was just the heat of the moment and can you imagine they signed cheques worth millions. Oh My!

Make no mistakes about this. Love is Unparalleled. It could change a soul for the better, hmmm! sometimes for the worse. But I love to always talk of sacrificial love, Just like God did for us. yeah! A mother's love for her child, brotherly love, you know what I mean.

But hey!! I am not dwelling on love in itself today. I want to take it away from “What it can do”, “what it has done”, “what it has achieved”. I want to talk about how it is most often misconstrued, especially when people say “I love you”

How can you say you love someone, when you can’t even remember their names? How can you love someone you just met a few moments (love at first sight, duh!). What exactly do you love about them? Can you say for sure?

Well, it is not uncommon to hear people say “I love you”. Oh how sweet, so wonderful some people would blush even when their complexion is darker than midnight, please!

But come to think about it, this is straight from the heart. Does saying “I love you” make the world a better place? Duh! It doesn’t mean we actually love our spouses or partners as much as we want them to believe, let’s be real for once.

Some people do not understand what it means to love someone. I am thinking love transcends beyond just the word itself, It is deep. I always like using Romeo and Juliet as an instance. You see how deeply they felt for each other. Romeo died for Juliet.

Love isn’t selfish. It is less of us and more of the other party involved. It is not blind as well. No, I completely disagree with that. You just don’t plunge into a pool blindly; you've got to know how far you can swim or if you can swim at all, in the first place.

Indeed love can’t be bought. Sending gifts, jewellery, perfumery and clothing doesn’t presuppose love. Don’t get me wrong, we need to express our emotions sometimes by exchange of gifts and all that. Yeah! But when it is now done with ulterior motives shrouded by lust, infatuation, obsession or just wanting to ”collect”, like my friend Charlie opined. You exchange gifts because you really want to appreciate something or things in your partner; not just some buy-out option.

Yeah, I agree love could still entail romance: scented candles, doing the movies, doing restaurants and take-outs. Yeah yeah! We shouldn’t be hopeless romantics, we could do without them.

 We should not say “I love you too” too quickly in response to an “I love you”. If you are not certain if you’re in love with the dude, the good old-fashioned “Thank you” would suffice. Conversely, we might never really have a second chance to say "I love you" to people that truly matter to us. It hurts, that I never told my mom I loved her. I felt she knew, but then, it would have made a better impact if she heard it from my mouth. I love you mom, even till death. I know as Nigerians, we hardly say it to family members and friends, we should start, you can't imagine how deeply it sinks into the heart.

 In conclusion, we should be sure of what we actually feel before we lead people on. My brother, don’t go and start promising marriage to a lady you are not so certain of, trust me, there are consequences.

Written By Justin Akadonye