Love, one of the most important things in the world. Whether it be self love, friendship, family, or the special person in your life. We always carry love with us and this month is the month when we get to celebrate it. 

Starting off with friends and family, there are many different ways of showing you care about these people especially depending on who you are as a person. Take for example, Gabriela Leon, a 17 year old junior at Agua Fria High School. She isn’t really an affectionate person but she does deeply care about the people she loves. Gabriela isn’t a big fan of physical touch so the most she is comfortable with is a high five. She shows she cares about the people she loves by having quality time with them, whether it be hanging out, watching movies, or even baking and eating.  While talking to her, Gabriela said, “There is no need to question nor ask about your love or care for one another, you just know it, the thought shouldn’t even come to mind.” 

Next, the special person in your life, your lover, whether you’re talking, dating, or even married, you should still make sure you give them the love they deserve. Just because you’re together doesn’t mean you stop doing the things you did to get them in the first place! There are many ways to show your partner you care, but you should probably act based on their love language, however, you have to know the 5 main love languages if you don’t already. First, Words of affirmation, examples of this are phrases like “I love you”, “I’m proud of you”, “I appreciate you”, and “You look so beautiful”. People who overthink a lot tend to be more into words of affirmation. Second, acts of service, this is basically the opposite of words of affirmation, and more actions speak louder than words.  Examples of acts of service are things like doing the dishes for them, cleaning, holding the door open for them, checking up on them, making them their favorite meal, or even writing them little notes to get through the day. People who fall into the acts of service category tend to care or pay a lot more attention to their actions rather than their words. Next, gifts, this one is pretty self explanatory. People whose love language is gift gifting is just getting people gifts whether they be big or small. Examples of things you can buy for your lover can be things like perfume/cologne, stuffed animals, jewelry, flowers, or their favorite dessert. In fact, you don’t even need to spend money in order to give your partner something special. You can write them an old fashioned love letter, or even a jar full of kisses. Moving on, physical touch, this is showing love through intimate touch. Examples of things you can do are kissing, hugging, holding hands, dancing, combing their hair, and massaging. If you’re someone who prefers just spending time with your partner over anything else then your love language is probably quality time. People who prefer quality time rather have meaningful moments together than receive words, gifts, acts, and touch. Examples of ways to have a good time together are watching your guy’s favorite movies, having a picnic together with no electronics to distract you guys from each other, going on dates, or even cooking together, whether it’s chocolate chip cookies or spaghetti.

Last and most importantly, self love, this is not something you only do in February it is something that you should be doing every day no matter the month, the year, the age, nor gender. There are many ways you can take care of yourself whether it is something mental or physical. You can take some ideas from Evianna Wright, a 16 year old sophomore at Agua Fria High School. Whenever Evianna is feeling sad she takes a long shower and listens to positive music, which sounds like a good way to relax. She also writes in her journal, it’s good to get your thoughts and worries out, you might even feel a little better after it. Other things she does is watch her comfort shows Grey’s Anatomy or Friends, does her makeup to get ready and take pictures, clean, or go on a drive. 

Although there are many forms of love, self love is the most important. Even if you can’t muster up the energy to take care of yourself every day, that is okay. In order to truly love others you must love yourself entirely, it’s okay to be insecure about some things it is normal. A personal belief of mine is that if you’re not doing good mentally your physical self will have to deal with it as well, so love yourself, only you truly can!