What each decade taught me about love

♥️ Age 0 to 9 years

Love is the rope that ties you to your clan. This rope that safely guides you to shore is the very same that might threaten to strangle you. It’s not the fault of the rope. The rope takes its form from the person who holds it. The blueprint you create for love now, you’ll spend decades trying to unpack.

♥️ Age 10 to 19 years

Turns out you can choose your family. With these new folk, your besties, you’ll whisper into the early morning sweet secrets. You’ll trade on memories that will shape you. It’s a love that will sit in your back pocket and bring with it sweet nostalgia, long after the tears of your first heartbreak pass. Long after the promise of best friends forever is broken.

♥️ Age 20 to 29 years

Love has a way of holding up a mirror to your most vulnerable parts to be weaponised against you; both by accident and with intention. As the main character in your own soap opera, you’ll experience that everyone has a different perception of love and are terrible communicators of this essential information. Towards the end of this decade, time comes full circle with the recognition that your family might be flawed, but they are yours.

♥️ Early 30’s

The splintered love experienced in your twenties, is replaced. You recognise that love is something you shape with yourself and with another being. You recognise that a few quality relationships, whether it be friends, family or a romantic partner are more valuable than fleeting connections. You long for the blend of passion, intimacy and commitment in the one you hold close. Some experience the type of love that you’d give your own life for, your children.

How you love, who you love and why you love start to tie together the narrative of your life.

What will the rest of the decade bring?