Young you, do you really know what love is? !

During the summer vacation when I was 18, I went to work in an English cram school on Heping East Road. I was responsible for sitting at the counter, answering the phone and cleaning the classroom.

Although I have been liberated from the pressure of the college entrance examination, I am full of acne scars and wear thick glasses. In addition, I am shy and timid. I am always timid and afraid to look people in the eye.

One evening, a man with a strong physique, dark skin, disheveled hair, and big copper bell eyes, who looked vicious but was about my age, came to sign up.

I first asked him to take the test in an empty classroom, and after finishing the test, he calculated the score, and then handed it over to the class teacher to decide how to divide the class. When the head teacher confirmed the class assignment, he stood in front of the counter in a bold manner and asked me which school I went to.

After he started to come to tutoring, I still hid behind the counter with my head down as usual, not paying attention to his coming in and out.

One day after class, I was about to get up and start cleaning. He stood in front of the counter with a smile on his face and said he would help. I felt very awkward, and I didn't want to ask this boy who looked like a bad boy to help, and I was too timid to say "no", so I had to let him wipe the blackboard.

After cleaning and locking the door, he led the scooter and accompanied me to the bus stop beside me to wait for the bus. As soon as I got in the car, he disappeared into the street with a bang.

From that day on, as long as he has class, he will stay after class to help clean and send me to the car. After school started, he left the cram school due to his busy schedule. He began to wait for me at school, and occasionally talked on the phone when his parents were away.

When we met, we pressed the road nearby and chatted about what happened at school. I live in the city, he lives outside the city, my school is in the city, his school is in the south of the city, I study business, he studies engineering, the intersection between the two is limited, and the topics are getting less and less.

Once he said that he and a classmate from the same school had a good relationship and often did homework together. From that day on, we drifted apart.

I forgot whether I ever felt pain, and my memory of him seemed to only stay on a certain day. I sat behind his Wild Wolf 125, and the sloping rear seat forced me to get close to him and hug him tightly. In the bustling Taipei night, no one knew about my shy but high lust.

Invincible youth, unrestrained love, crying and laughing, heartache and joy. And young you, do you really know what love is? !

It was mentioned in " My Advisor " that I was asked to take an intensive English class first.

The students in the class come from all over the world. There is a first-year exchange student from Hannover, Germany. He has short blond hair, a square fair face, small and long eyes with light blue eyeballs, thin lips, and cheeks. And some freckles. He loves to smile very much. When he smiles, he shows white and neat teeth, cheerful and youthful.

We sit near each other, and he often came to me to ask me about Chinese customs and habits; he also liked Chinese characters very much, and always asked me to teach him how to write. He asked me to help him choose a Chinese name, so I simply translated Johannes as "Hansi" and explained the meaning of these two words. He liked it very much and pasted my written name on the door of his room.

If he goes home for a long vacation, he always brings the German coarse grain bread baked by his mother to ease his nostalgia when he returns to school. He would cut a piece for me. The coarse grain bread was dry, hard and difficult to eat, but I couldn't bear to refuse, and always praised the bread as delicious and filling. I often gave him some tea bags in return, and he praised the oolong tea for its fragrance and sweetness, but I knew that his classmates often mocked the tea as bland and tasteless behind his back.

Once, he asked me how old I was, and I said: I am already in my 30s. He said, impossible, he couldn't believe it, he was only 18 years old, I should be in my 20s. I could see tears glistening slightly in his light blue eyeballs. I said, no matter how old we are, we are good friends.

Just like coarse-grain bread and oolong tea, we have cultural differences and age gaps. Maybe these are not problems, but when we meet in a foreign country, some should be caring and friendship. And young you, do you really know what love is? !

[If you are not interested in academic theory, there are 1,000 characters from this dividing line to the next dividing line, so you can skip the summary directly. ]

Even after all these years, I still don't know what "love" is, asked ChatGPT, it said:

"Love" usually involves deep affection, care and attachment to people or things. It can take many different forms such as: love, family affection, friendship, or devotion to a hobby or interest.

The common characteristics of "love" include:
- Feelings of warmth, tenderness and intimacy towards a particular object.
- Desire to be close to, support and care for a specific person.
- Willingness to place the needs and wishes of a particular partner above one's own.
- Feeling joy and satisfaction when being with or thinking about certain objects.
- Forgive and overcome challenges and difficulties that may arise in relationships.

(A few punctuation marks, sentences and unified terms have been simplified and modified.)

ChatGPT's answer is concise and appropriate, and specifically mentions the characteristics of love, but it is too general, so I asked Wikipedia again.

Wikipedia clearly states that "love" is a strong emotion and attachment to a person or thing, which can be derived from sexual or emotional attraction, or from respect and admiration.

"Love" is to actively treat a living body or object with sincerity, so the scope or object of love can be broad or wide, ranging from people, animals, objects, to organizations, gods, countries, etc. It can also be at the level of spirit or behavior , such as: learning, power, reputation and so on.

Wikipedia further summarizes the definition of "love" from the three aspects of science, culture and religion, and puts forward a complete and scientific basis.

Among them, the American psychologist Robert Sternberg put forward the " Triangular Theory of Love ", which combines the three elements of intimacy, passion and commitment (Commitment) into seven types of love.

Intimacy refers to the perception of attachment, intimacy and relationship due to familiarity; Passion refers to mutual attraction, resulting in strong romantic and sexual attraction; Commitment refers to the willingness to maintain short-term or long-term relationship with each other or planning for the future.

In the triangle theory of love, if there is only intimacy between the two parties, it is friendship; if there is only passion, it is unrequited love; if there is only commitment, it may be blind date marriage or matchmaking marriage.

If passion is accompanied by intimacy but no commitment, it is a one-night stand; if there is intimacy and commitment but no passion, it is like family; if there is passion and commitment but no intimacy, it is love at first sight or flash marriage.

If "love" has the three elements of intimacy, passion and commitment, it is called "perfect love". Perfect love can sustain longer and better relationships; but when the passion dies, it gradually becomes a family-like companionship, as is the case with many couples who have been married for many years.

After reading the definition and interpretation of "love" in ChatGPT and Wikipedia, frankly, I still don't know what love is.

However, it is known that "love" is a complex and strong feeling, actively and sincerely wants to establish a relationship with a specific object, is willing to continue to invest in emotion and care, and obtain joy and satisfaction from it. Therefore, love is not only like, but also passion and commitment.

The scope of love can be tangible people or things, or intangible spirit or behavior. Therefore, you can love family, money, and country, or you can love beauty, gossip, and publicity. But whether it is "love" depends on whether it meets certain characteristics.

Therefore, love is a noun and a verb, love is a state and a perception, love is a result and a process.