Pre-Reading for Eleanor and Park

3. Thinking about all areas of your life, write a thorough explanation of the difference between "like" and "love." 

We meet new people everyday, and, whether we mean to or not, we automatically decide whether we like or dislike them. One can like someone within minutes of meeting them, or maybe even before meeting them, but (contrary to some people's beliefs) love at first sight doesn't really happen.  

  Real love takes time and requires effort, but when you like someone, it is possible to not see them for years and still pick up where you last left off.  We are able to leave the ones we only like because we don't really need them.  When we love someone, we do need them in our lives.

  For example, a daughter loves her mom. The daughter can't and shouldn't live without her mom. That same daughter has a friend at school that she likes. If the daughter and the friend get into a fight and stop liking each other, (whether it seems possible or not) life will still go on and the daughter's life won't be seriously affected.

   Loving someone is harder than liking someone. It's easy to say you like someone when you don't know who they truly are. When you love someone, you have to learn to love every part of them, even their flaws. Saying you love someone (in my mind) is like saying that you are committed to them now and forever, through good and bad. When you say you like someone, it just means you have a connection. So when you finally tell someone that you love them, you can't leave them. When you say that you only like someone, you have the option to leave.

 Far too often people get confused as to what love is. They think they love that special someone at school, and they think they love instant mashed potatoes. Being loved is essential to life, so everyone is always looking for love and putting the label of love on everything because deep down we are all desperately searching for it in every possible way. The words "I Love you" are thrown around and misused way too much. We don't need be liked, we need to be loved. Sure we all want to be liked, but "like" is temporary and “love” should be forever.