Many adults think teens can’t fall in love; they say that we aren’t old enough to know that feeling. That’s not true though.

I am a teen who has fallen in love myself, multiple times actually. Every time I have fallen in love it was different, and it wasn’t always romantic love either.

The definition of love is to “feel deep affection for (someone).”  But it also means “an intense feeling of deep affection.” Those mean love, whether it means you love someone romantically or as a friend.

For example, I loved a boy and I love my best friend. Loving them was different for both of them.

Adults don’t realize that we can love someone and that we are able to say those words to each other.

The first time I fell in love was when I was 14. It took me one month to figure out I loved this boy. That was before we even really dated, but I knew I loved him. I was able to tell him that, and he told me he loved me too; we only dated a month, but I still will say he was my first love. I no longer love him like that, but I still know that feeling of loving someone, even if I got hurt.

Adults have told me I didn’t love that boy; they have told me I don’t know how to love. They just don’t believe me when I tell them I have been in love.

They think I am too young to love, to know what that feeling is, but love is different for everyone, so how could they tell me I don’t know what love is?

The hard part of loving is getting hurt. I think that every teen that has fallen in love has had their heart broken, too. If it is from their first love or a friend, they loved. I have fallen in love and I have been burned by it.

The last time I was burned, I felt like I was never going to love again. I was overacting but that’s because it hurt.

I found out there more ways than one to love someone when I started to care for my friends. I thought “yeah I care for them but it’s more than that.”

So now I replace the word “care” with “love,” and it fits so much better.

I love my friends and family with my whole heart, and that’s a lot, but I also love this boy. I don’t love him like I loved my first love, but I love him. Funny thing is I can’t describe it because I can’t actually describe love.

Teens can love as much or even more than adults because we don’t know better. For some teens they love too much, other teens love too little, but teens can still fall in love, they can fall out of love, they can say the words “I love you” to another teen.

Some adults don’t see that because they don’t see the way we love; they see us being stupid and reckless.

So, adults of all ages believe teens when they say they have fallen in love. Maybe we don’t know what we have, but we are still learning.