There are two moments of love that have shaped my life despite neither of them being my love story. When I was thirteen, my grandma was on her deathbed and the family was called in. My mom and her sister and brothers and my grandfather were in the hospital room with her, and my cousins and dad and I were outside, in the hallway. But the door was open. I could hear the tears, and the heart monitor start to slow down ever so slowly, but I also heard the words that will follow me for the rest of my life. It was my grandpa, my pappy, and he said to her, "You're still the prettiest girl I ever saw." And then my grandma breathed in her last breath and the heart monitor flatlined.

The second was when I was older, when I was sixteen, and there was a car accident outside of my school, blocking the way in. I went around the back road though, so I was in the student parking lot. This guy that I knew, a grade ahead of me, was in the lot as well, pacing back and forth, his face red and stained with tears. He watched me get out of my car and then pointed at the accident below. "Have you seen Rieley?!" He asked me frantically, and continue pointing down at the crash. There was a car wrapped around a tree that looked a lot like Rieley's little red car, but he already knew that, of course. I told him no, I hadn't seen her, but right as I did a little red car pulled in beside us. I watched his whole face brighten up and he wiped away the tears. Rieley barely had her door open before he had her off of her feet into his arms and his mouth pressed to hers.
They hadn't even been dating, they were just best friends. On that day though, he didn't care, he just knew that he was in love with her. They were inseparable from then on, and they're engaged now, all because of that one moment.

I've seen true love. I've seen love that's lasted over fifty years, until a dying day and well passed that. I've seen desperate young love finally realized. Maybe I don't have a love of my own yet, but I definitely know I've seen love. I know it's real.