“Random girl fell in a bar and smashed her nose open, I held everythi

"Random girl fell in a bar and smashed her nose open, I held everything together under a bar towel, ended up riding in the ambulance with her because they saw no need for me to release the pressure just to re-apply it and they thought we were together anyway, I get to the hospital and stick around to make sure she isn't dead as hell, they keep her for the night on some intense pain meds, I have no cab money, no atm nearby, and no good friends for a ride home, everyone thinks we are together already so I just crash in the little shared room space she had, next day we chat a bit I buy her a coffee that she could barely drink, she gives me cash for a cab and her number, we go on some dates, boom here we are together."

"How I fell in love with my current boyfriend: First off, we matched on Tinder. We talked for about a day and then I found out he didn't live around me and was only around my area for work so it died out pretty quickly. We followed each other's social media accounts but nothing ever came about it. Then on my birthday, I was feeling confident so I ended up messaging him: giving him my number and saying we should talk more. We immediately hit it off and talked nonstop for a few weeks until finally, he wanted to hang out with me in person. So he bought me a train ticket for me to go all the way from Erie, PA to Kansas City, Missouri (which is where he is from). You don't just go halfway across the country for anyone so basically, that's when I knew I was falling in love with him. I went and had the best week meeting him and his family. They ended up inviting me back for the 4th of July and then invited me to go on their family road trip to California. We're in a long distance relationship but it works out perfectly for both of our busy schedules. It's a lot of driving 12 hours one way for him to come see me or jumping on a flight to go see him, but he is definitely worth every dollar and minute.  He is my best friend and we get along perfectly (he doesn't even mind my extremely difficult attitude). A year later and we are happier than ever."

"Falling in love is the most unique feeling in the world. The verb 'falling' is an accurate one – there's nothing else you can focus on, nothing else that matters. Looking back on it afterward that's exactly what it feels like, falling. It can come on you suddenly, when you aren't expecting it, with somebody you've met before, or it can be almost instantly like it was in my case. I may be biased since I'm describing what it was like falling in love with my future wife, but falling in love is the best feeling."

"I think the best word I could use to describe my first encounter with love is awkward.  It seems to be almost a rite of passage for teenagers in some ways.  Getting over that first "love", if you can even call it that seemed like a daunting task.  But as far as the feelings I experienced, I remember the nerves, the tingling sensations, what some call "butterflies".  Yeah, it may sound sappy and cliche, but those things really do happen to people the first time they think they're in love.  For myself, and some of my friends this was definitely the case."

"Choosing them isn't a choice anymore, you just do it. By that I mean you don't choose to make time for them even on a crazy day, you just do it. You don't choose to not take your bad mood from a shitty day at work out on them, you just don't. If you see something you know they will love, you send them a pic or buy it just because you know they will love it. You aren't choosing to do any of that stuff, you just do it because you love them and you want them to know that."

"He sat behind me in my algebra class. One time I turned around to hand him an assignment and he was sitting there in a full body Pikachu costume. He just nodded and said 'What's up.'"

Brittany:

I think how you feel love depends on your age. When you're young you feel it all at once and it's just this feeling you think you have and are supposed to feel and you roll with it, but as you get older you realize that love is manifested in different forms and you can recognize it more easily in those forms.

The first time I said "I love you" to someone was in the 10th grade, at my 16th birthday party. He was my first real boyfriend. He was chasing me around the thing that spits the bowling balls out at you and he just blurted it out. We had been officially dating for only a week or so when he said it. I ran away, but then later said it back before he left my party. That relationship was off and on for about six years and we discussed in later years that that wasn't when we meant "I love you", we just thought it was something that should have been said at sixteen years old. The real "I love you" came later.

The next time I said it to someone was over Thanksgiving break. I was dating my boyfriend for about two months at the time, but we had been exclusive I guess for about four months and had known each other and work