IS IT LOVE?
If being a teenager is hard, being a teen with a crush can feel 50 times harder. Just figuring out if it's really love can be half the battle. Myjellybean.com presents 10 questions to ask yourself, to help you figure out if what you feel for that special someone is love, infatuation, friendship, gotta-have-a-BF fever, or something in-between.
Question #1: Do you treat him as a person, or as an excuse?
If you go out with a guy because he is good looking or popular (a "prize" to be with), because you want a boyfriend (and you would have dated anyone semi-good who asked), or because he is a way of getting out of the house (he'll buy your concert ticket), that isn't love. That's using the other person to get something you want.
Question #2: Would you still choose to spend time alone with him if there were no kissing or other physical stuff?
If you're not interested without the physical stuff, it isn't love. It's infatuation (you like his looks, but don't know him better than that), it's chemistry (there's attraction, but maybe not much more) or it's hormones (you want to kiss anyone, and he'll do!).
Question #3: Are the two of you as happy and as comfortable alone as you are with friends?
If you need other friends around to have a good time, it isn't love.
Question #4: Can you be totally honest and open with him?
If you need to put up a front to keep him interested, it can't be love because he doesn't know the real you. If you don't feel comfortable expressing your feelings to each other, you don't know each other well enough yet for love. If either of you are selfish or insincere, that's a sign that it's not real love and it might never be.
Question #5: Do you fight a lot?
If you fight and make up a lot, or tease and criticize one another, be careful, it may not be love. Sometimes physical attraction keeps us together with someone who we don't really belong with.
Question #5: Are you still interested in dating or playing around with other guys?
If so, you aren't in love.
Question #6: Are you or he very jealous?
Jealousy means there's a lack of trust, and that means it's not real love. Loving someone includes trusting them to behave in your best interest, and doing the same for them.
Question #7: Does he does things to offend your values?
If he does things that go against what you believe in (such as, he drinks or takes drugs, he is mean to old people, he tells homophobic jokes, or he's rude to your friends), you won't last long.
Question #8: Is he the first person you rush to when something good or bad happens to you?
That's a sign he is an important part of your whole life, and it could be real love.
Question #9: Are either of you a big taker and not a giver?
If so, no matter how comfortable you feel with this relationship now, it may not last. One-sided love tends to fizzle. It's the couples who learn to give and take equally who end up together.Question #10: Do you dream of your crush?
Dreaming about your crush means they are in your heart and your mind. It may be love.