Rashada Yesmin

The Illusion of Love There are people who ask you to stay, not because they dread your absence, but because they cannot bear their own loneliness. They keep you like a reserved seat, like a refuge for their empty moments, until someone comes along who better suits their needs. And when your presence is no longer convenient, they offer you friendship like a consolation prize, as though the heart could change its place without remembering where it once belonged. But where does all that love go when circumstances change? How can something that seemed irreplaceable yesterday become something unwanted today? Was it ever love, or merely the need to have someone there until an easier choice appeared? For people are not objects to be moved around when our desires change. Nor are hearts waiting rooms for those who are afraid to travel alone. And what a strange human foolishness it is, to call self-interest honesty, to wound and ask for understanding, to consider leaving your own right, yet staying someone else’s obligation. Perhaps, in the end, the truth is simple. Love is not proven when everything is easy, but when things cease to be convenient. And there lies the difference between someone who loves a person and someone who loves what that person has to offer. For some people never lose love. They simply lose the need they once called love.