Habiba ElGaniny Unrequited love, modern relationships, and emotional connection: 2026 has made it almost impossible to call yourself in love. It has become more complicated than trying to understand Helena Bonham Carter’s fashion sense, which, admittedly, is fabulous.
Back in the bygone days around the 70s, relationships seemed easier to us. My references vary from movies, long-lost love letters all the way to our grandparents. That’s their favorite topic. They always indulge in nostalgic, carefully preserved letters as their enduring testament of being young and in love. Honestly, what could be more intimate than sending a letter? Knowing that it will take days to get there, even more days to receive a response, and you just keep that eagerness and devotion alive.
Have humans somehow evolved? Did human nature suddenly, unexpectedly shift?
Finding a person that you love, and who would love you back, now feels like an elusive dream. In a world where billions of people exist, why are we making it so difficult for ourselves?
Most girls’ nights circle around the same topic: has modern love become complicated overnight? Or have we simply grown up enough to discover this truth? Why do so many of the people we know experience some form of one-sided love? And why does falling in love seem to arrive with so many conditions now?
Do you have to be loved back in order to say you’re in love?
When observing such a situation, you can always sense love at the beginning. But then, as the person opens up, talks more, and hears themselves admitting just how desperately they are in love, it slowly transforms into shame, which can later descend into despair.
Why do we choose reciprocity for validation? If he likes me back, then that legitimizes my feelings. If not, then all of that was a fantasy, an illusion quietly constructed inside your head. You’ll probably never mention it to someone, acknowledging that it was some kind of failed love trial, as though that somehow makes it less worthy of remembrance.
Here’s where we disagree: anything that you felt, anything that moved your heart, is worth remembering.
Love is such a precious feeling to carry in your heart towards someone. It feels ethereal. It feels like a transcendent experience, like you’re a stranger who’s starting to discover their true self. You get to explore your limits, what you could do for love and how your perspectives could change.
To be full of love is to be full of life and who doesn’t want that?
Maybe the essence of it all is to find love within you. You shouldn’t be expecting it from someone.
The amount of love you’re showing to someone who was not so long ago a stranger reflects nothing but a small portion of the actual amount that lies within you. So why make a tragedy out of it?
Complicated people do exist. Sometimes our hearts wander and we fall for the most wrong person of all. Maybe not having those feelings returned is a blessing in disguise, maybe it’s protecting you. You can’t control the other person’s actions, you can’t control someone’s feelings, so why be offended when they aren’t directed toward you? In fact you’re incapable of controlling your own. If you could, then it’ll be simple, just cancel the love subscription to this person and wake up the second day relieved.
I can’t quite say that it’ll always be this hopeful, or that on a random day you might not suddenly be struck by a fleeting memory of them and feel that familiar ache in your chest, but I am offering you a new, refreshing perspective. Don’t be scared to show your own feelings. Think of it as a source of power, that renewing source is you. So don’t exhaust your heart, recognize its capacity and pay your respects to it.
You’re in love.
You don’t need approval for the label and certainly you don’t need to be dependent on someone else to feel love. Maybe on a random morning you’ll wake up and the truth will reveal itself to you: the devotion you naturally give to your friends, family and stray animals, those fleeting moments of pure affection to the sunsets, flowers, that sympathy that takes over when you’re listening to a friend, the tears filling your eyes while watching a tragic movie. That all comes from you. That’s all love.
So congratulations, you’re in love. You’re in love with life.
