What is Real Love?

So being on campus thus far has subjected to me to many different views of love. The first question being put forth is WHAT IS REAL LOVE? I mean, sure, you see people on campus "boo-loving" as some call it. But what does that signify? Are those people in LOVE? Most of the times, I would say they are either in LIKE, or in LUST. As a guy, I know better than to throw around the "L-Word" as if it is some colloquialism. That four letter word has the power to make or break a woman's heart. I see some couples on campus who have met since freshman week and are still going strong. Kudos to you! The sad thing is, I just can't play into it all. Yesterday, a friend of mine told me he is in love with the girl he had been dating for a year. To his dismay, I laughed right in his face. LOVE? WITH SOMEONE YOU'VE ONLY KNOWN FOR A YEAR? Being the type of person I am, it might take me MORE than a year just to get used to the negative aspects of the person I am talking to :S How can you know somebody for a year and say that you LOVE them? After my friend made that statement to me, I told him a story I had been told by a cab driver on my way to work. So here goes:

This cab driver told me he had just gotten off the phone with his girlfriend. Her birthday is next month, April 24th and I guess she was really excited because he told her he would be traveling to London to accompany her on her special day (don't ask me where a cabbie gets money to travel to London). Anyways, little did she know that he also planned to propose to her on that day. He had already chose a ring, and was trying to figure out how exactly he would pop the big question. He told me that he had been married twice before and that he knew from the get go that his previous marriages were destined to be "crash and burn". I could tell how much he really LOVED his current girlfriend just by the enthusiasm in his voice when he started talking about her. He said that he was so attracted to her because she is a biology major studying to become a medical scientist (this is how we got on the topic, because I told him I was a biology major). Her knowledge amazed him, not only because he knows she is going somewhere in the future, but because although she is much more educated than he is, she is so humble. He began to describe how he appreciated every last one of her "flaws" because that is what attracts him to her. In the 15 minutes that I was in this man's taxi, he pretty much told me his whole life story and how they had discussed to have kids only AFTER they both secured jobs that would provide for them financially (he plans to return to school at HER request). I have never in my lifetime, seen a guy so infatuated with someone. However, I can tell that this infatuation is the healthy type because from what he says, they both build off of each other.He said that she refuses to have children until she has a job that she knows will pay for her kids education and for their financial stability in the future. I could tell he was madly in LOVE with her and I wish them the best. Hopefully I can find the Bonnie to my Clyde sometime during my 4 years at Howard. I know not to rush it, though, because unlike the cabbie, I DON'T intend on marrying twice before finding the love of my life. That wasn't the only highlight of the ride, however. Being in such a good mood, he stopped the meter while we sat in traffic, which reduced the cost of my fare by almost half.