Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Part II)

First of all, this post wouldn’t be possible if not for the people who generously shared their stories with me. Thank you for making me realize that I have really crazy friends. Haha! I kid! Seriously, what started out as a little survey turned out to be an enlightening project that not only asks the craziest thing people did for love but also makes people look back and realize that at the end of the day, there was/is always that someone you were/are prepared to do crazy things for.

And because the heart is stubborn and irrational and fearless and willing to do all sorts of crazy – in the name of love, here goes Part II:

 

Have you ever been so crazy in love that you conquered your fears for that person?

“When you’re in love, you defy almost everything, even your worst fears in life”, said my friend who walked alone, across a pitch black campus at two in the morning, just to see this girl. I guess that’s the thing with love, you feel no fear (or maybe you do, but you don’t care). Case in point: this guy who challenged a whole fraternity to a boxing match to fight for his girlfriend. For some people, love means entrusting someone with your life (crazily hehe) – like this girl who, in a drunken stupor, hopped on a back of a motorcycle, and let her equally drunk boyfriend take them both home. Blame it on the alcohol, maybe. But she now looks back to that night and just thanks God that they got home alive (otherwise they won’t be married now) hehe!

I realized that girls can get really fearless (and crazy) when in love – fearless in a way that they are willing to step out of their comfort zones, like several girls I know who moved thousands of miles away from home. One girl even borrowed money from her parents to live halfway across the world, without a job, away from her comfortable life here, and into the arms of the man she loves.

Makes you think about leaving your comfort zone, no? :  )

 

Did you ever feel like your love life (or someone else’s) is taken right out of a movie scene? You know, like how you can relate when Basha gets jealous seeing Popoy’s new girlfriend (One More Chance, 2007) or how much you feels you had when Lorenz finally admits he’s in love with Toni (Got 2 Believe, 2002) or how you wished you were Aurelia when Jamie proposed to her (Love Actually, 2003).  Well, I think my friends have better versions.

Who in his right mind will still surprise an ex-girlfriend (and on Valentine’s Day, mind you) who’s already dating someone new? Imagine a guy, waiting in a lobby with a bouquet of roses in his hands – then the new couple walks in, straight from a lunch date. Now, that’s a surprise, alright!

This girl has a different version of an airport scene. She literally went from place to place, searching for the guy, and finally ended up at the airport – few hours before his flight leaves. Given the limited time, it was not possible to profess her love to the guy, so she did the next best thing: she gave him a book, and in those pages, she wrote everything she wanted to say, and confessed every feeling she has. I don’t know if I’m allowed to write what happened next, but please tell me that’s one of the most romantic things you’ve ever read!

And of course, who doesn’t remember a movie or two where the girl falls for her best friend? As for my friend who “gave up the friendship to jump into the wild waters of love” (her words, not mine), falling in love with the best friend is synonymous with crazy.

 

 

It’s amazing how (most) people’s initial reaction to the question was amusement. I don’t know if it’s the retrospective realization that you were once ‘too in love’ that you were willing to do things even if you make a fool out of yourself, even if you know it’s wrong, and even if the feelings are not reciprocated. It may be that realization that you were once capable of doing such things and exerting that much effort. Like commuting from Manila to Laguna just to see the girl, spending the night talking to her, then taking the bus back to Manila in the wee hours of the morning; or paying for his rent and food, raising funds for his tuition fee, and even raising more funds to pay for damages incurred during his motorcycle accident; it could also be letting your partner ‘explore’ and be free, all the while knowing that you might/will be hurt if she finds someone new – but you do it anyway.

But really, is there anything crazier than the girl who pursued the guy and who proposed to him, eventually? :  )

What’s the craziest thing you did for love? 

Crazy Little Thing Called Love

What is the craziest thing you did for love? Ask this question randomly and you’ll most likely get a stifled laugh. I’ve been asking this question the whole day. You see, this morning, I bore witness to something crazy my friend did when he got back together with a partner after being kicked out of the house (with no place to go) and being bashed in cyberspace. This morning’s events got me thinking how people can do really crazy (and at the time, in my opinion, really stupid) things “for love” and it got me curious. Okay, very curious.

I’ve asked friends, colleagues, relatives, ex-lovers, couples, acquaintances – through all forms of social media possible, and well, over lunch – just for me to get different perspectives on the amount of crazy people are willing to go through or put up with or just do in the name of love. Based from the answers I got, I can say that you do crazy things in all stages of a relationship (official or otherwise) – during the early stages of romance, throughout the ‘life cycle’ of a relationship, and finally when chapters have ended and ties are broken.

Here are some of the craziest things people did (or still do) for love:

 

Ah, the feeling of falling in love – the million little butterflies in your tummy that make your heat beat like crazy. It’s that stage where you feel like you can do anything for someone, like this guy who stayed at a coffee shop for 9 hours, while waiting for her shift to end (I wonder how much caffeine he had), because let’s face it, we usually go out of our way to do something for someone we like. But some people literally go out of their way, like this girl who ditched her friends during a movie to drive from Alabang to Quezon City like a madman just to see this guy.

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. And oh boy, how people went crazy with food! Like this guy based in Laguna and who commuted all the way to PGH just to bring her her favorite siopao (complete with drinks and a change of clothes). And then this girl who lied about her cooking skills, saying she specializes in cooking his favorite sinigang when she doesn’t even know half of the ingredients in the dish (thankfully, the first attempt was a success and the guy liked it)!

And of course, we’ve all had our share of campus crazy: like doing his entire thesis manuscript just so he can graduate, getting a drastic makeover, following him around campus, paying half of his apartment’s rent, lending a huge amount of money just so he can pursue his dreams of modeling, and even waking up at 3am every Sunday (for four Sundays) just to be a runner for his bar exams. I guess you didn’t really learn everything in kindergarten after all.

 

Love can change you, in ways you never thought would be possible. It can transform your good crazy to a ‘deep’ crazy, for lack of a better word. When you fall deeper in love, or as the relationship progresses, you get to know yourself – how you really love, and how far you’re willing to go to keep that love and to stay in love. Would you consider giving up a career in medicine, like this girl I know? If you’re in a relationship lasting more than 5 years, would you also fight for it even if your partner is in love with someone else? It’s true that people deal with relationship problems differently – some would choose to stay even in an abusive relationship in hopes of change, others will simply ignore everything just to protect the long years of emotional investment. While others continue to fight for the love they think is right, others will content themselves being the third party. After all, all is fair in love and war.

When you love someone, you don’t really care what other people say or think. Does it matter that the girl you love has a kid and is still married? No. You accept and love her anyway. Does it matter if she lives halfway across the world? No – you travel 10,000 miles to be with her. You might even move across the ocean. Does it matter if he asks you for money? No. You will gladly send him money and even pay for his condo down payment. Does it matter if you have to fork up money for your weekend getaway? No. You will even pay for your entire Boracay trip – parasailing and island hopping, included. Does it matter if, after a bad breakup, he tells your mom that you’re gay? No. You still get back together with him.

I guess when you love someone, these questions won’t really matter. Or maybe they do, but you just don’t give a damn.

 

Not all relationships are meant to last, and this is the painful truth most of us had come to terms with. For some people, though, the end of a relationship usually triggers a phase of insanity. And while they don’t really define a person, these lapses of judgment more or less define how bad the breakup was, or how much love was lost. Take this girl, who, after the end of a 7-year long relationship with a high school sweetheart moved heaven and earth (including across-the-campus marathons, chasing the guy) just to ask for another chance. Or this brilliant girl who had to beg for attention and forgiveness at four o’clock in the morning (literally on her knees and in tears, only to be ignored for an hour or so). Or this guy who, after being cheated by his boyfriend, even helped him pack his things and bring him home.

While some relationships end, some are not even meant to begin. No matter how hard you try to convince yourself that there might be a chance, there comes a point when you just have to accept and move on. Also? Waiting in a parked car outside the hospital where he works, on a Friday night (until early Saturday morning), just to get a glimpse of him – this one takes the cake.

We have all done crazy things in the name of love – no matter whose perspective. Because at the end of the day, it’s who we love that really matter.

So, what’s the craziest thing you did for love? : )