He made me oblivious to all my surroundings. All of my troubles, worries, problems completely vanished from the first moments we united. Laughter combined with words full of happiness were the only sounds coming from my mouth. It seemed as if every moment spent with him was perfection and each moment without was a waste. “You two are too young to even know what love is,” everyone told me. Of course I did not listen. After all, how could it not be love when in this short time I had forgotten what it felt to like to be unhappy? What I seemed to not be able to realize, however, was that I was slowly losing control over myself, and giving it all to him.

I did not notice the subtle signs that should have steered me away. The infatuation of this new romance was overpowering, blinding me to what needed to be seen. I was under the assumption that I could fix the small flaws and prove anybody who doubted us wrong. I knew I must keep up the fun- loving carefree image we started out with alive. I tried with everything I had. Each time he got angry with me for not spending a weekend with him, I made up for by ditching my friends every day of the next. When his family arranged a gathering, I attended every one and made an effort to win each member over. Learning to hold my tongue and take the blame during petty arguments helped to keep us at ease as well. The whole entire time I reminded myself that my effort was keeping him happy, which was supposed to keep me happy. Before I knew it, I was exhausted from attempting to maintain the fantasy in my head a reality.

The day I knew I completely lost control was the day of my best friend’s birthday. She was distraught when I told her I could not go to her dinner because I was obliged to go to a get together with my young love. I tried to explain to her that I would make it up somehow but it was no use. Feeling completely guilty I went to my other friends, who I quickly learned would be no help. Apparently, I had chosen who meant more to me in course of my actions and they were not the winner. Why would they help me in my time of need when I had not been there for them? I could not turn to my parents. They were the ones who had the most doubt in me and what I was trying to hold onto. The only words we had spoken to each other in months were hurtful in order to win an argument, or pleas begging me to come back to Earth from cloud 9. My sister was just as angry with me too; I had ignored her most of all. It was in that moment that I realized my romance and turned into an obsession; the unhealthy obsession to prove everyone who doubted me wrong and to prove to myself that I could change someone for the better. I realized almost too late that he did not want to be changed; he wanted to be the one in control who changed me completely, and I finally decided I would not allow him to do so.

When you are young, what older generations refer to as “puppy love” may not be seen as a serious matter. However, to two young love birds blinded by the perfections of the other, it is as serious as a heart attack. Instead of trying to change the other person and working around the flaws, the younger generations need to understand that they deserve happiness without all of the work. They could possibly mistake being in love with being obsessed. They do not need to change for the sake of pleasing another, because if they realize their mistake too late, they may also realize they are too far into someone’s grasp to get away.