Love
- By Indu Shanmugam
- Published 10/21/2008
Indu Shanmugam
Indu Shanmugam is a 20-something, college student from Oregon, USA. She is majoring in English literature and language. She also studied Theology for a short period. She wants to be a teacher. As a literature enthusiast, she enjoys literature of all types and from writers of various backgrounds from the classics, French realists, Christian writings like C.S Lewis and South Asian literature. As for her own writings, "I am still trying to find and develop my own voice." She sees the art of the written word as a way to speak about Christ and explore truth. Before she met Jesus Christ, she has been searching for the meaning of life through experimentation of other religions, philosophies and ideas. At the age of 17, she accepted Christ after a powerful encounter with God through a miracle. God's presence and deep truths in the Bible fuel her creativity. She is involved in church activities and has a love for the church and would like to see every believer grow, become closer to God and live fruitfully. She loves traveling, sipping bubble teas, theatre, music, films and hanging out with friends and has a weakness for cheesecake.
Love is not the same as insecure attachment, lust, out of selfish motives, and sentimental garbage.
I learned that love is sometimes not always romantic and perfect as portrayed in the popular movies, romance novels and tales. In fact a lot of the love stories out there are actually shallow, sentimental garbage. My favorite romance movie of all time is actually Forrest Gump. I felt that themes of grace, redemption, patience, sacrificial love were beautifully illustrated.
I don't believe in "love at first sight" or the idea that love just happens. No, true love takes time to develop and that could mean years. My idea of love is that there is a guy I'm intially attracted to and maybe he feels the same way towards me. We start to get to know each other and maybe go on dates or spend time together. At first, I'd like him to get to know me as friend and for the real person I am - including my strengths, weaknesses, flaws, interests, passions and what I have to offer. Likewise, I want to know all these things about him too. We should be able to relate to each other as though we are best friends. From there it may progress to something more. And even if things don't work, we still have mutual respect towards each other.
My views of love has dramatically changed. It's as though all the sudden, I'm not having romanticized, unrealistic thoughts of love as I used to. It's better to wait.
