Hooked on Love: Why We Fall, Break, and Fall Again

Love. Four words that have fueled a thousand poems, torched all pop songs, and fueled the biggest (and most disastrous) decisions in the history of man. It's what fuels books, drives artists, and what all rom-coms throughout the history of ever have been constructed around. So why is it precisely that love has us chasing after it, writing about it, crying over it, falling for it—again and again?

Let's talk of love—not greeting-card love, not text-message-with-emojis love, but raw, unadorned, often dirty love that keeps us going and tears us apart. Most people, hearing "love," envision candlelit dinners, train-platform reunions with arms-outstretched melodramatic running, or two human beings running toward each other in slow motion. Love is bigger than all the above. Love is your mom grabbing the last slice of cake for you. It's your best friend calling you at 2 a.m. because they sense that something is wrong. It's your dog with a wagging tail as if years have elapsed since it has set eyes on you—whenever you get home.

Love also finds its expression in quiet. It's your partner warming your side of the bed on a chilly night. It's sitting in quietness with hands held when words are too hard. It's your father learning to text so he can say "good luck" before your job interview. Biologically, love is a complicated chemical cocktail—dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin—acting in concert to make us feel good. It's our brain's way of telling us, "Yes, this person matters. Stay near." Scientists can chart it, quantify it, even control it. But this is the thing: there's no MRI scan that can fully account for how one smile from one person just right can make your entire day. Or how heartbreak hurts in the actual sense.

There is something still so enchanted to cling to—something greater than biology and formulas. It's wild, chaotic, and utterly crazy. And some of its beauty lies in that. Why do we still love when it can make us weak, broken, or question everything? Because when it's lovely, it's all. Love colors life. It elevates the ordinary into the sublime. A walk is a memory. A glance is a story. A kiss is a universe.

Yes, love hurts. People do leave. Occasionally we get lost trying to cling to them. But even in that, love is a teacher. It stretches us. Softens us. Reminds us that we're alive. As the old proverb says, "Better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all." Most of us would agree—not because we enjoy heartbreak, but because love is worth the risk.

In a world of dating apps and digital connections, love looks a little different than it did for our grandparents. A glance across the room has turned into a swipe on a screen. Love letters have become voice notes and heart-reacts. We’re more connected than ever, yet many feel lonelier than ever before. But here’s the truth: no matter the technology, the core of love hasn’t changed. We still crave connection. We still need a human to get our lame puns and remember how we take our coffee. We still want to be seen, chosen, and understood.

The challenge now is to be real. To set down our devices. To make something deeper than double likes and pretend profiles. To seek out love not just that looks good, but that feels good—on the crap days too. The most underplayed, underestimated, and most required type of love is the one we have for ourselves. Self-love is not selfishness—it is the bare minimum. Once you know your worth, you don't settle for anything less. If you love yourself, you attract it back.

Love yourself. Be someone you'd fall in love with. Speak to yourself as you would speak to one you love. Because once you're standing on the ground of self-love, everything else falls into place.

And so we still fall.

Because love is the most human thing that human beings do. "It's why we write songs, risk everything, and co-create lives. It's how we navigate loss, tedium, Mondays, and March. It's the spark that fuels our best moments and the comfort in our worst. We believe in love because in our hearts, we know we do. We know it's crazy and complicated and sometimes painful—but it mends, it's lovely, and it's every moment worth.".

Love isn't tidy. It comes with no guarantee. But it's worth the journey. And in an uncertain world that can be cruel and confusing, love is the most shared, plainest truth we can cling to.

So here's to love—any type. Romantic, platonic, unconditional, imperfect. Let us pursue it, give it, and never lose faith in it.