How Falling in Love is Like Getting a Puppy

Being in love is like owning a dog. But falling in love is like getting a new puppy.

From the first second you lay your eyes upon love it seems like there is nothing else in the room. Love gets your attention, all of it, immediately. You must have it. You forget all the warnings your mother ever told you. You don't care if it makes a mess, you don't care if it takes all of your time and all of your heart and you simply don't care if it will grow bigger and turn into serious responsibility when time passes by.

The moment you lay your eyes upon love, you can't say no to it anymore. And after you have decided on love you become frightened. You fear that love might not want you, it might fear you or worse - it might already belong to somebody else. But if you're in luck, love doesn't yet have a home and it runs to you like your the most wonderful thing it has ever seen.

When you have a new love at home, you can't stay away. A moment apart seems like eternity. You run home from school, from work, from some meaningless party a friend of a friend of a friend invited you to. You just want to be home with your new love. Watching it sleep is the most fascinating thing you've ever done. Everything love does while awake seems utterly adorable and insanely captivating.

The first days with your new love is the time before you come across the fact that love can also be bad. You've heard love can chew on things you loved before, you know it might leave a mess behind and it might even bite you. You know it to be possible yet you don't care and you can't love love any less even if you know it to be true.

When you get a new love, it makes you wonder how you ever could live without one. It makes you wonder how something so seemingly small can bring you so much joy and meaning. And at the same time you constantly worry you might not know how to take care of it, you might actually accidently hurt it or even loose it. The thought of loosing love is unbearable.

And that's why you hold on to it. You let it fill your life, your daily routine and your home. You get used to not being able to come and go as you wish. You get used to the fact that something relies on you. You get happily adapted to a life with a new puppy.

And that's when you become a dog owner.

(This writing is a reply to Taylor Mali's wonderful and lovable poem: How Falling in Love is Like Owning a Dog)