Love is patient, love is kind…or is it: Love tried my patience, love made me kind of wish I’d never swiped right on Tinder? In honor of the day when Cupid is known to strike (with some direct hits and some tragic misses), we conducted an unscientific reader survey in which we asked you to complete the phrase “Love made me…” From romances that made you travel the distance—thousands of miles in some cases—to those that made you thankful that you’re single, the main theme in everyone’s answers: Love makes us who we are. We’ll drink to that.
Love made me find a new life in Charlottesville <3
Caitlin Worrell/Facebook
Blind love made me elope in Lake Tahoe, sell my great house, buy a catamaran, break through an icy river in November and sail off to the Bahamas with a charming but completely self-centered rogue. It was right after September 11 and all I can say is I guess my guard was down and my heart was broken. The eight-month voyage was full of misadventures and fun and beauty and tears and grandeur and pain. As soon as we landed at Gangplank Marina in Washington, D.C., I kicked him off the boat, went to the magistrate and got a divorce ($84! Best expenditure of the year!). Then I proceeded to live happily on my boat there for three years. Was it worth it? Yes!
Charlotte Drummond/Facebook
Leave a city I was comfortable in and move back to my hometown. A place where I really didn’t have a good start. It was the love of/for my daughter that prompted me to move her closer to her maternal family, and it made me rethink my relationship with my family. In the end, love won, and we all are happily together these days!
Minervia Berry/Facebook
Move to another city. Then when my father-in-law passed away it made me move back so my husband could take care of his mother. What a wild ride!
Betty Davis Shiflett/Facebook
Sell a house I’d bought only the year before, get married a second time and move to C’ville without a job…and not regret any of it!
Brenda Browning/Facebook
Love made me spend part of my winter in Detroit. That was a few years ago. Now I’m older, wiser and warmer.
Michelle Lynne/Facebook
Love made me realize that true peace and happiness comes from within, and not from the affirmation and affection of others.
Sarah Whitney/Facebook
So happy ^_^ And over 15 years later, even happier!
Lisa Sweet/Facebook
Spend 19 months dealing with USCIS [U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services].
Ronda Chollock/Facebook
Love made me decide to be polyamorous.
Gretchen Burgess/Facebook
Almost move away from Charlottesville?!?!! Wha???
Caroline Mankins/Facebook
Stay in Harrisonburg another two years, adopt cats, change my whole world and write a thesis.
Emily Elizabeth/Facebook
Love made me love someone who didn’t love me back…
Justina Harris/Facebook
Move 5.5 hours from home.
Deborah Christy/Facebook
Sleep like a baby…Priceless moment.
Avi Alvarado/Facebook
Made me decide to move to Charlottesville after 43 years of living in Lynchburg. Good move!!
Rene Ankney/Facebook
Single and happy to be so!
Brenda Neckerman/Facebook
Broke and crazy.
Matthew Paul Sissons/Facebook
Forget who I am.
Terry Davenport/Facebook
Marry a man I met at the mall!
Laura Brinkerhoff Young/Facebook
Adopt A LOT of dogs!
Cindi Scott/Facebook
A better person.
Deborah Christy/Facebook
Crazy!
John Webb/Facebook
Smoke pot.
James Spencer/Facebook
A better person.
Larry Saunders/Facebook
Who I am today.
Gayle Millner/Facebook
Move to C’ville!
Amanda Tesvich Brown/Facebook
Go on a bicycle tour.
Melissa Wender/Facebook
Happy…for a while… <3
Laura Frances Conradi/Facebook
Itchy.
Lou Lombardi/Facebook
Love made [my husband] read Jane Austen! And love made him quit smoking!
Raennah Lorne/Facebook
Love made me move across the ocean with a 6-week-old to keep our family together. (It was either love or hormones…) 😉
Rachel Harris/Facebook
Stole a bunch of flowers from my school’s garden to give to my crush in elementary school.
Carl Carpenter/Twitter
Learn to be flexible and less rigid.
@llspot/Instagram
Move to Charlottesville while my fiancé is at Darden!
@shortce/Instagram
Love made me…move cross-country to C’ville.
@petesraven/Instagram
Love made me move 1,100 miles to be with a man I’ve been married to for 12 years now. Love made me find my life’s path and a home in Charlottesville.
@kijilinn/Instagram
Love made me.
Caitlin Peterson
Love made me end a relationship to get involved in a better one.
Max Bacall
Love made me want to buy a boombox to hold outside someone’s window. I forgot that it is the 21st century and I couldn’t find one cheap enough.
Paul Sanders
Love made me ask my doctor about Cialis.
David Johnson
Love made me have a picnic in a sewer.
Richard Elwell
Love made me very different than I’d thought I’d be.
David Reid
Love made me watch Game of Thrones.
Micaela Cameron
Love made me cook plenty of meals.
Jenna Delgado
Love made me buy a bunch of nice gifts and plan a trip to the Bahamas.
Terrence Smith
Love made me able to have an excuse to see the Alvin Ailey dance company.
Chris Staples
Love made me learn how to let go of my fears.
Julie Desperes
Love made me put my spouse ahead of myself every day.
Brian Moynihan
Love made me get married, have children and trust God.
Becky Mcallister
Love made me learn how to downhill ski.
Joel Lehman
Love made me drive thousands of miles.
Nicholas Leduc