This Is Us
Why Liking Your Partner Is More Important Than Loving Them
It’s okay to revisit your 15-year-old self for a while
Can you remember middle school? It started out with toys and games and ended with boobs and wispy little beards and mustaches. And at some point, the conversation changed from your friends asking “Do you want to play tag?” to “Who do you like?” They’d stretch out the word “like” as if they were hollowing out the middle so it could be filled in with all the fraught emotions of teenage crushes.
What they wanted to know was who made you stop in your tracks when you saw them? Who was the person you would give your last piece of gum to? Or wait for out in the cold so you could walk with them the 40 steps to their car? Who was the person that made you forget about Legos and friendship bracelets and think about lip gloss and holding sweaty hands in the back of the bus?
When you’re young and you like someone, their jokes are funnier, their clothes are cooler, and their hair is the best. Their taste in music is amazing, and if they mess up, it’s adorable, not annoying.
As the years passed, we stopped “going out” and instead started being “in a relationship.” Everyone moved from “liking” people to focusing on “love.”
