Saying "I love You"

I find it amazing how people can really be extra sweet on ValenTyne's day. I can see flowers and chocolates posted on FB by wives and girlfriends surprised by their significant others. Love is in the air indeed! To me, it is a day for both lovers, entailing a 2-way expression of love or a day for celebration of Love in any kind of relationship. I would also prepare something fancy and extra special for someone or give my sister or mother the ValenTyne's kiss or hug, just to simply remind them that I do love them.

I Love You - 3 simple words that when put together can make a whole lot of difference in people's lives, in both/either the person saying it and/or the other end receiving it. They are the sweetest and most powerful words one could ever say. They could mean a lifetime for some.

I had a conversation the other night with someone about expression of Love. And it reminded me of how important it is to go out of my way to let the people I love know how much I do. After all, life is too short to wait on for time to pass before you profess such an important thing. It's like tell it now or you may never have the chance to do so.

In our family, it is quite common to tell each other “I love you” or at least for me to say it even just before I put down the phone. Growing up, I have never been afraid to tell people that I love them. I make sure I say it as often as I could. Sometimes, I feel like telling it often makes it lose its meaning because people hearing it may get so used to it already. This habit all the more got into my system when I came across a story in my college religion class about a young boy who met an untimely death and wished that he had the chance to tell his parents how much he loved them for the last time.  

“The essential sadness is to go through life without loving. But it would be almost equally sad to leave this world without ever telling those you loved that you love them.”

Like the story of this young boy, I guess we’ve heard hundreds of love stories about missed chances, regrets and what if’s.  There’s the story of the old lady who wrote a letter to Juliet after so many years in the hope of finding back her One True Love (Letters to Juliet); or the story of Anna Scott who braved her way to tell William Thacker she loves him (Notting Hill). The only good thing about these plots is that the people here got the second chance to make things right, that is, to let the other person know about how much they love them just in time. But as in real life, it’s not always the case. You could wake up one morning to a deaf ear or an indifferent heart. So I say, whatever it is that you feel in your heart at this moment, you got to let it out. The chance may never come again and you may regret not having to grab it on the first shot. Tell your mom or dad or siblings you love them. Tell her/him how special she/he is to you. It may not always be reciprocated but it is always liberating! Go!