The 6 Kinds Of Love You Need In Your 20s

While sometimes our 20s might feel like a jail sentence, it's the highs and lows that will set us for a balanced adult life moving forward. Without the fast loves and slow crashes, and slow burns and quick disasters, we wouldn't have the callouses to handle the obstacles that cross our path.

With every new love, we feel as light as feathers. We feel like the world is ours for the taking and we kiss the ground we walk on. The flowers are more vibrant, the grass is softer, the sun is warmer. With every heartbreak the world grows dim, our futures darker, and our attitudes darkest. We lose interest in the things we love. The world around us feels prickly. We go through those highs and lows both to learn about ourselves, but also to learn about people. To learn about what we need from a partner and what we have to offer.

It's easy to look at a relationship as a waste of time or an unnecessary notch on your heartpost, but in the grand scheme of things, it's all relevant. Heartaches are worth twice as much as the highs. We need these relationships to start and end to see where we begin. These are the kinds of love you will experience in your 20s:

Platonic Love

In your 20s, you'll have a love affair with your friends. Some friendships will fade away, and others will strengthen with a bond so unbreakable, you know you'll be kicking it in old age together. When you realize your best friend is your platonic soul mate, you will become infinitely grateful for their existence and challenge yourself to be a better friend everyday.

Emotional Love

You'll find someone who you have an incredible emotional connection with. You can talk for hours and hours and their existence makes you feel less alone in the world. You can tell this person anything. You'll become even more emotionally in-tune with yourself with the help of this person. They'll give you the confidence to follow your instincts.

Physical Love

Your sexual awakening can happen really at any adult age, but typically in your 20s you'll find the confidence and comfort with yourself to really explore sexual relationships. You'll find people with whom you have incredible physical chemistry with and learn all you can from and with them. You'll meet someone who makes you love your body more than you thought you could. You'll meet someone whose smell will drive you wild and remind you that you are, too.

Ambitious Love

In your 20s, you'll hopefully start to fall in love with your career. Your ambition will go into overdrive; you'll meet people who have similar goals and dreams, and you'll help lift each other up. You'll stay up late at night, planning to take over the world and leave something wonderful behind. You'll inspire each other and give each other the confidence to for forth with your dreams.

Unrequited Love

You'll love someone who doesn't love you as much, and then someone will love you and you won't love them as much. You'll experience what it feels like to want to have feelings when you don't, and you'll experience what it feels like to not receive the love you need. It might break your heart, you might break someone else's heart, but you'll both learn from it.

Self Love

At some point, you'll learn to love yourself. You'll spend just enough time alone to realize that you're pretty freaking awesome. You're strong, you're resilient, you're wise, and you're unique. Once you learn to love yourself, you open the door for others to love you, even more.

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