I know what you mean... I'm not sure that I know what love is either.

I found this article on ancient Hawaiian culture. I think it speaks to the difference between Christianity’s influence on how we view sexuality and at least one indigenous culture’s. I also think the idea of “love” is also closely related.

[hawaii.edu]

Love is a brain state with all the attending chemicals and side effects.

I used to think I knew what love was. Having suffered from it, I now call it "attachment", and I hope I never suffer from it again.

Yes. The term love is misleading. Like you. I have gotten close with a few humans but the feeling of love that many talk about.

Love is a choice. Some say that love is unconditional. They are wrong.

Baby don’t hurt me.
Don’t hurt me.
No more.

Lol
Love is a lie.

I don't think you can make love happen, it just happens. I think you will truly know love when you feel like you have lost that person forever and at that crucial moment in time, you cry in an uncontrollable and unexpected way. I think getting to that point is something that will take multiple years for a person that has a forcefield around their emotions, but for others who connect easily, they may be able to find it faster.

I'm one of the types that have that forcefield around the heart, and I've only felt this type of loss once in my life was when my best friend in an extremely drunken state told me he wanted to kill me numerous times after we fought in the back of my car on my birthday. He pinned my head against the car wall, and I threw one punch and landed it in order to dislodge my self from the wall and he missed knocking off my glasses. He was super pissed but my younger brother calmed him down enough for us to get back to the house, without further fighting in the car. At the house, while I was getting my stuff to move out, my younger brother and his older brother held him back initially while he raged more. I left the room I was renting at his older brothers house we were all living in thinking that I had lost my best friend forever.

I, fortunately, had someone give me free Pistons tickets 1.5 years later on the last day of the season, but I couldn't find anyone that could go at my work, at last, the last minute. I resigned my stubbornness and called his house to drop off some extra tickets to the game. When I got to his house they showed up unexpectedly after they were done with work and we all went to the game like the fight we had never happened.

Love is what we call the bond between people who care for each other... Heinlein once said it was when you cared more for the other person's needs than you did for your own (Time Enough for Love)... Is it true? Who knows because to each person it means something different. I see you are only 24 so you have the time left in your life to figure out what it means to you. There are some poor sods that never are able to love someone else because all they have is self love. Those are the narcissists, sociopaths, and psychotics who work towards making the world a miserable place for everyone instead of just themselves...

Love is a decision and a commitment. It usually works until something goes wrong and both parties are not going in the same direction.