Just a little speech about the alley...

I always pictured the alley as a place to get stuck and be pre-occupied. A place that you want to be in, but want to get out as well. If this is then the alley, therefore LOVE is an Alley for me. As much as you have your own love stories, i have one of my own too. How simple it may seem outside yet how complex it is for four people. Best friends falling apart, being stuck for how many years, and all those corny love stories that you read in novels. One thing i learned about love or falling in love is you don't have to rush it. I comforted myself before i went back in the alley, "Don't try to chase the butterfly if you can't catch it, just wait and it'll just come right back to you". In reality, it may not be the same butterfly but good things do happen for patient people.

What LOVE is to you? What is Love to all of you?

I guess Love is everywhere, and yet so many ppl have no idea what it really is. How can one explain such a feeling as Love? It can start a war or end one; it can bring complete strangers together, or tear best friends apart.

There are many types of love. The love of 1 friend for another, the love of a close family, the love of oneself, and the most sacred of emotions, the love of 2 ppl for each other.

Love is one of the most elusive and incomprehensible of feelings. We are ruled by the two passions, love and hate. Yet, we can love to hate and hate to love.

How do we know, surely and truely, what love is? How can we comprehend all the various forms love makes?

If we care more for the happiness of another person than for our own; if we are willing to not only die for one other person, but to live for them as well, then that is what I call love.

I say Love is not for the faint of heart. Most of us mistakenly think that being in love should only contain butterflies in our stomach, sweaty little hands, and trembling heartbeats. A little of us know, being in love means being ready to get hurt too. It is by countless trials, infinite smiles, random disagreements and an infinite time of hands holding together that you can say it outright that you are deeply inlove of that person. It is when two people have passed through the worst and best of their lives but are still able to say "I LOVE YOU".

Love is not a destination but a journey. Everytime we see a fairy tale love ending our hearts and minds often dream of being just like them. It is so easy for us to think, "I will have a happy ending like that" but the truth is, we even don't know how to start the journey. We often want to have that happy ending right away and not realizing its been built by a strong foundation. Some people just chicken out when they see a slight hint of storm coming up. Others stay a little bit more and then frail in the middle. Those who made it stayed together keeping up a positive look at their journey.

Is it true that Love makes us blind? Love doesnt make us blind if i put my opinion on that. We do see the shortcomings of our special someone but we chose to overlook them. Not because a person who fell in love is stupid, dumb & idiotic but love bridges the gap between two completely different human beings. If I may ask to all married people here, you do see your partners weak areas but you chose to live with it because you see hope and simply, its just LOVE. Now look are where you are now. Happily married right? Whenever I feel weak, i think about "I just need to be patient a little more, just a little more because someday i'll look back at this and smile".

None of us are sure who ends up with whom. Thats why its a journey because the end is yet to be known. Always remember to put this in mind that whatever happens, happens for a reason. Be it your hurt broken, looking for one, or just having a rough time with it. It is for a much greater purpose. Who would ever expect that you'll meet your girlfriend or boyfriend going back 3-5 years ago? No one. The series of events led you to meeting that person right? Even you are hurting now, it happened so that you'll grow as a human being. Nobody is ever good at love, love is not of our control because it involves more than 1 person. It takes two to tango.

LOVE is a cousin of hope. Because just like Hope, as long as that remains true, it never dies. No matter how many obstacles you throw at love, when its been made by bonds stronger than diamond, if i could compare it like that, it will survive. Distance, age or what not, it will only just be a bit of sand against a mighty wall. But reaching that bond of a diamond, is the challenge.

Now I'm in a whole new alley. All that i have been through the past years made me what I am. The story of four people became the story of one guy stored in memory lane. Come to think of it, the alley isnt complex after all, Life, LOVE - how simple can it be right? If i went back in time and changed everything, I wouldn't be here talking to you. I wouldn't be the same person as I am today.

To those who wish to catch the butterfly, don't, just be patient and you'll get in the alley soon enough.