I think love is one of the noblest feelings we have. It is also one of the most innocent. It is part of what keeps a soul alive. When I try to say what it means to me, it separates into a few things: love received, love given back, love as passion, and love as the proof that a soul is still alive.

To be loved

Love from others.

I will remember every person who has truly loved me. I remember their kindness, their company, and the quiet ways they cared for me. I want to remember that each of those things was a gift. Even when a moment has passed, the care someone gave me can stay for a very long time.

To love

Love given back.

I want to return the care I have been given. I want the people I love to feel loved by me too. I will try to be sincere with them, stay loyal to them, and live up to the trust they place in me. Gratitude, loyalty, sincerity, tenderness—the words are easy to list and slow to live, but they are the shape of what I owe.

To find each other

Two lights.

One of my deepest wishes is to spend my life finding someone I love, who also loves me. I want us to choose each other. I hope we can stay beside each other without either of us having to lose who we are.

And if not—

If not.

If that never happens, I think I can accept it. I could leave some of the noise behind, live quietly like a hermit, and keep a small world of my own. I would still have skies to watch, things to make, questions to follow, and a world I want to understand. My life would still contain the people, ideas, and things I love.

The things I love

Love beyond affection.

When I speak about love, I am also speaking about the things I care about deeply: the interests I keep returning to, the ideas I want to build, and the goals I want to spend my life pursuing. For me, aircraft, technology, and design are part of that love.

Aircraft. I have always loved aircraft. I still find it remarkable that something designed and built by people can leave the ground and travel through the sky.

Technology. I love technology and what people can do with it. An idea can become a real tool, and that tool can give someone a possibility they did not have before.

Design. I like designing things. I enjoy taking an unclear idea, adjusting it again and again, and slowly giving it a form that makes sense.

Passion

Love as passion.

I also understand love as the interest and passion behind the things a person chooses to pursue. It can attach itself to almost anything—a dream, a question, a machine, a place, an idea. Interest makes me want to know more. Knowing more makes me want to keep going. That is how a passing interest becomes part of a life. Many of the things I want to learn, make, and achieve begin with the fact that I genuinely love them.

A living soul

Love as a life force.

I think a living soul needs something it genuinely loves. Someone. Something. Somewhere. An idea. A future. Without that kind of interest, curiosity, or care, something inside a person would slowly become still.

All of it together

I want to remember the people who have loved me, return that love sincerely, and be worthy of the people I love. I hope I will find someone with whom that love is mutual. If I do not, I can still live quietly and continue caring about the world around me. I will still have things I want to learn, make, and pursue.

For me, a living soul is a soul that still loves something.

Inspire Endless.