Phew, y’all. We made it through the whole year of January. (JK—we know it was only a month, but yikes!) Finally, February— the shortest month of the year—is here!
Spring is just around the corner (we hope?), and love is innnn the airrrrr. Whether you’re a romantic, an anti-Hallmark Valentine’s Day rebel, or a Galentine’s Day supporter, all that pink and red has got to have you feeling some type of way.
Over here we’re gearing up for this sappy season of chocolate hearts and red roses with some lovely love stories.
When you hear “love story,” you might think of something like this:
Or this:
But we want to celebrate that love stories can also look like this:
Or this:
Sure, it can be easy to think love story = rom-com basics (boy meets girl; boy annoys girl and/or girl annoys boy; hilarity ensues; boy and girl kiss). We’ll never say no to that kind of cheese, but wouldn’t it be just a little more interesting (and make a lot more sense) to celebrate and explore love in all of its many forms?
LOVE IS EVERYTHING, Y’ALL.
We’re talking LGBTQ love, parent-child love, sibling love, best friend love, community love, even self-love! Aren’t those love stories, too?
If you didn’t know Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie before Beyoncé’s “Flawless,” we’re assuming you know her now. Besides being a boss in educating folks about the true meaning of feminism, she is also known for her TED Talk “The Danger of a Single Story,” in which she discusses the very real importance of telling rich and detailed stories in order to not ignore entire aspects of our shared experience. When there is only a single story about, for example, love (like love being only between a boy and a girl), we lose so much color in the rich tapestry of human life. It might sound dramatic, but this stuff is important! If our very basic knowledge of the Beatles taught us anything, it is that all we need is love.
