This emotion is destructive, chaotic and erratic, but at the same time beautiful, meaningful, uplifting. It the most beautiful thing god has given to us on this big blue planet; Described in only four letters, it’s one of the biggest mystery in the world. Imagine biologists and chemists trying to figure out what makes us love. Sitting there stressed out pulling their hair out and double checking their equations, when it’s so simple. Love isn’t a problem. There is no mathematic equation you can look at to figure it out. Love isn’t seen with your eyes, it is something the mind makes you feel with you heart.

It has been expressed through music, art and even influencing people to wage wars. John Lennon wrote the song “All You Need is Love.” and was inspired to write that song because he felt that to get through life all you need is love. My high school culinary teacher, Mr. Norman, every year for Valentine’s Day makes his wife art out of things he finds that represents his love for her. This man looks for simple things on the side of the road and makes them beautiful. He has done this twenty three times. He’s gone through quarter of his life with this woman and i’ve heard him say she is all he needs. That is love. Homer recorded that The Prince of Troy, Perseus fell in love with Helen of Sparta. And all in the name of love waged a war against all of Greece’s mightiest soldiers. His love brought down an entire country as martyr. Troy was set aflame all in the name of love. It’s just as powerful as a nuclear bomb and just as simple as the hydrogen atoms that react to cause the enormous explosion.

Love is chaotic, and erratic. A virus that can break anyone down from the inside out, even the biggest strongest men can be defeated by love; Making their minds paralyzed and unable to think of thoughts besides love. Like natural disasters, it’s a force to be reckoned with an inescapable trap.

Think of a hole in the middle of the jungle and in it is everything you need to survive but its 20 feet deep with no way to get out. You can scream for help but no one can hear you. After time you become blind to everything outside the hole, and ignorant to the world outside. Your life becomes the hole. You forget about all the things you use to do like going to work, eating breakfast and even showering. Love is just destructive as it is beautiful.

My love was a beautiful dancer with beautiful brown eyes that so dark that they looked black until you got close enough to see how easy it was to get lost in them. I met her at my cousins 15^th birthday party.

A day of dire importance, an event you must attend it one of many regular partys he would have for the end of summer, a holiday or a birthday party. This was a day we all got together to celebrate my cousins growing maturity very slight, but still he was getting older. Back then me and him were a lot closer. We were a lot more like brothers than cousins. Now we just seem to look at things differently. With age you seem to take a different look at the world, you may notice things that you never noticed before. The little things are extremely important to me because sometimes they are overlooked because of their obscurity.

I remember everything perfectly. She pulled up in her dads, four door white pick up truck, that was just fueled by testosterone. Jumping out the car with excitement she ran over to my cousin, gave him a hug and said “Happy birthday Zachary!,” in the cutest voice possible.

Still in shock because she was the embodiment of everything I looked for in a girl, Tall dark eyes, and just had a swagger that could match my own. On the outside I was keeping cool, posting up against the front door of my uncle’s house trying to find that perfect opportunity to introduce myself. On the inside I was like a wolf ive seen in a cartoon. Hooting and howling with my eyes were bursting out of their sockets turning into hearts, and my tongue rolling out on the floor.

That’s when sixteen year-old Michael Foster Kneeland fell in love with Jessica Marie Madeline Mackenzie. A tall Aphrodite with long legs a slender body, with curves that still make my mouth water.

She was wearing a green and black striped hoodie and skinny jeans so tight, that I thought the button was going to pop off and black Converse chucks scuffed by the linolium tiled floors of Plymouth North Highschool.

Her colors stood out from the cool January spectrum that was displayed outside. All the tree were dead red and orange leaves were gathered around all the round wintergreen bushes that were the perimeter of my Uncle’s yard, there was’nt any snow on the ground yet. That year snow came late and everyone gathered closely in a hippe circle, as we used to call it, had their sleeves over their hands and was blowing on them in efforts to keep warm. Honestly I have no clue why we sat outside for so long or maybe it was’nt long at all, but I felt as if I was in slow motion staring at this girl I was just introduced to. From those beautiful cow brown eyes that glistened in the twilight, down to those chucks she was perfect. Her rock star style matched my acoustic sensitive heart.

Throughout the night we mingled and flirted, and we threw touchdown passes across my cousins game room with M&Ms into my mouth. She was the quarterback, I was the wide receiver.

It was obvious that my feelings were reciprocated. She was laughing at some of my terrible jokes, complimenting me on my shoes, and playing with my hair, but I knew for sure when sat on that big black leather couch, watched Hostel, one of the most gruesome movies ever.

she whispered “I hate scary movies,” and gripped my hand so tight that my calluses on my left hand turned purple, But I didn’t mind I just stared at her, and she just stared at me.

The glowing light of my Ipod set the mood and topic the conversation. She told she played piano, my heart dropped like a wild elevator down its shaft, because music is one thing that keeps me sane. We dedicated songs to eachother to remember eachother, they were something that we could listen to and wherever we would feel close to eachother.

Recently many years after my cousins 15^th birthday party and years after me and Jess split up. I heard this quote from a character by the name of Reed Bennett, from a movie I was watching, doing research for this very paper.“,Love is the last shocking act left on the planet.” (Valentine’s Day) and for the first time I realized that day I fell in love for the first time. The way stunned I was at first sight, and how my heart beat grew more and more intense with step took closer to eachother is unexplainable.

Love is more than just flowers and chocolates, love is something that can only be sensed, not bought or forced upon. Its a perplexing puzzle that is simple. It is a feeling that is irreplaceable. If you’re truly in love you’ll be happy in your hole in the middle of the jungle. You’ll see past the dirt and the worms and your mind make you see with your heart and you’ll see that hole is love.

The best things in life are free, by schedson wagnac is a sad inspirational essay that makes one reflect on ones own life. You cant help but feel the authors love that he has for his cousin even though he never ever mentioned that simple four letter word. Its obvious his reason for containing his emotions and not visciously placing his mended heart on on the paper to not spoil the climax of his essay. Also doing so, would dampen the shock of kiki’s death. He wanted us, the audience to feel his pain as kiki got worse and worse, to think about a time when we couldnt focus on our own lives due to chaos, or a time of urgency.

The title “The Best Things in Life are Free” is a foreshadow of Wagnac’s ephipany. Kiki says ” There are better things in life than money and candy.” Wagnac at the time did not appreciate his cousins words. but later after the tragedy the weight of kiki’s words holds insight and forces Wagnac to reflect and appreciate the little things. He uses his cousins voice when life hits that bumpy road to realize how much he has and how worse off he could be. The purpose of closing with his revelation causes us the audience to realize our own situation, and that best things in life are free.