By Seth Mason

How do we know the difference between our gut and our heart? Everyday girls and guys break up. Sometimes it’s the guys fault and sometimes it's just not. Guys, don’t try to blame anything on a girl if you ever hope to be happy. Males and females have a natural attraction to one another. But how do we tell the difference between sincere feelings and what we perceive as true feelings?

Let’s start off by describing infatuation. Webster’s dictionary defines infatuation as the following: To arouse an extravagant, foolish love. This means that you can sometimes mistake love by creating a false idea of love. Mistaking love for something else may even cause you to overlook how you are being treated negatively. Maybe your significant other doesn’t even respect you and you are being blinded with your misconceptions about love. Sometimes it takes a long period of time before you even realize what is actually happening.
To determine whether or not you are in a healthy relationship, sometimes it’s helpful to ask yourself some questions. Does he/she show you respect? Is the communication lines open in your relationship? Are you being treated the same way you treat them? Sometimes we think that the person we are with is the world to us and that’s not a bad thing. However, it can never hurt to reevaluate what you’re saying when you say, "I love you." Do you mean to say that you really care for this person beyond explanation, and that they feel the same way about you?
Let’s turn to the definition of love and check that word out Webster’s style: Intense affection for another arising out of kinship or ties. Consider this; you’re in love with someone… how long have you known them? How much do you know about them? How about the most important question, what is love? It’s a good question and I can’t tell you who has the right answer but I can give you some insight on what I believe to be the right answer. Love is having a friendship. Love means sacrifice. Love is having pure desire to be happy and being able to share that happiness with ONE person. Your happiness shouldn’t include drugs or any other harmful things inflicted on your body because people that love each other don’t let each other intentionally harm themselves.
How do I keep myself from falling victim to infatuation? How do I find love? I can only find out through patience. Patience reveals a person’s true intentions; patience can show you all sides of a person. And I don’t mean wait just a few days or a couple weeks. I'm saying wait until you think you’re ready. It’s ok to be friends with someone first and still have the intensions of dating. If anything, waiting will make a stronger relationship. Good luck on finding what you’re looking for and don’t be afraid of taking risks. Don’t fall into infatuation, fall into love.