By Ashley Perry
Imagine this: you’re sitting on a park bench, reading a book, or enjoying the sights around you, when you lock eyes with a stranger across the way. Your stomach flutters and your heart races before you suddenly look away and they disappear. For days you can’t get them out of your head. One day you walk into a coffee shop, and there they are! You talk for a bit, start dating, get married in three months, and live happily ever after. Except you don’t. Although this scenario may seem to be the epitome of romance, it is not a healthy beginning to a stable and long-lasting relationship.
Despite what Hallmark and Paramount may lead you to believe, such a thing doesn’t exist. Rather, the phenomenon seen here is infatuation at first sight, not love found in an instant romantic connection. However, a moment such as this can be the spark that starts a conversation. If this goes well, an official first date follows, and spending time together becomes a regular occurrence before an eventual relationship can form, whether romantic or platonic.
In this instance, finding a solid foundation is key. Throughout these stages, it’s important to explore your common beliefs with this person, develop well-versed communication skills, create a sense of safety in your relationship, and form a deep connection with each other. Above all, you should be comfortable sharing every aspect of yourself with the other person without the fear of judgment—and this level of trust isn’t possible with a complete stranger.
Although every relationship essentially begins with strangers establishing trust with each other, love at first sight isn’t an accurate way to describe how this happens. Obsessing over a shared few seconds of eye contact with a random pedestrian won’t get you an engagement ring anytime soon, and your efforts are better spent creating connections. To sum it up: love isn’t found, it’s made.
By Kenzie English
But picture this: a bustling sidewalk, you rushing to work and someone bumps into you. All your papers and belongings fall to the ground. They are apologizing profusely and are trying to help, then it happens. You meet each other’s eyes and time slows. You can hear the blood rushing in your ears, your cheeks are burning, heart pounding, that is love at first sight.
Love at first sight is believing that just by they’re physical attributes and mannerisms alone, this person is the one for you. In the words of English teacher Bradley Baker, “It was divined in the cosmos.” You just know. It can’t be explained. All you know is that you feel happy, scared, excited, and confused about why this one person completely turned your world upside down.
Against a seemingly movie-only cliché, this happens in day-to-day life, as well. Emily Blunt and John Krasinski, the couple in A Quiet Place, knew they were meant for each other. They were engaged within 10 months of meeting, “but I think we knew before that,” Blunt said.
Love, at first sight, can inspire a person to pursue a relationship with whoever they have fallen in love with with confidence. Love at first sight takes another victory! The couple knew how they felt from the very first time they laid eyes on each other; the butterflies were real. They were meant to find each other. It was a proper soulmate situation.
Love at first sight heavily relies on a person’s intuition and understanding of how to read people. It can also be dependent on how well a person understands their desires. In all the rom-coms, the protagonist knows what he/she likes. They find the picture-perfect boyfriend/girlfriend. It’s almost too good to be true, but do you read? Everyone has their book bae; it was a love-at-first-sight scenario too. You read the description: wavy brown hair, green eyes, a dimple. It can go on and on, but just from the mere mention of the way the character looks, you know. They’re yours and no one else gets to call dibs.
The person who you fall for needs to mesh well with your personality. If you can tell what a person’s personality is like based off of first sight alone, then you found it! It is real. The universe brought you two lovebirds together.
Experiencing love at first sight is amazing. Its success can lead to a long-term relationship that started with a too-good-to-be-true situation that was a little awkward, possibly dramatic. If it can happen for celebrities, it can happen for you.
Getting to know the person you fall in love with after seeing them for the first time is the icing on the cake. You already knew they were perfect for you. But if it hasn’t, go out and find it! It will happen!
