When I was 17 a girlfriend of mine told me that true love and truly being in love isn't defined by mad emotional or sexual passion. It's a sense of being and a level of deep friendship that just feels as if you want to be nowhere else with no one else; that you are safe with your partner with whatever he or she wants to do; that you are a unit, one and able to trust each other completely to be honest, and worthy of each other's trust.. it isn't a sense of perfection, but a sense of 'we can work it out'. It can happen instantly or grow into that slowly. It allows you to be you and it allows you as a person to just flow from the inside out once you achieve it. I never really felt that my entire life until I met a man in 2025... From the minute I met him I just felt like my entire self had come home... I was able to be open and honest, and had no longer a fear of others, strangers, groups... And I knew from that moment that this was what my 18 year old friend had told me about. It wasn't a wild passion... it wasn't a need that I had to devour him sexually... it was just that he was there and I was with him and didn't need to think of being anywhere with anyone else... and I knew I could trust him in all matters... that the sex part would just work itself out as a result of our mutual trust and affection giving us the motivation to overcome any differences at that level just as it was doing on the surface. BUT what my 18 year old friend forgot to tell me was that it had to be mutual for it to last... And apparently on his part, he didn't feel it... and it didn't last. BUT at least now I know what she meant and hopefully I will find it again or he will discover that what he thought was missing between us really wasn't. He just didn't have that friend in his teen years who was able to explain it to him early on. Either way, I wouldn't have missed it for anything in the world.