RE: Original Post
Wow, so many cliches in a single post. Don't you have any thoughts that weren't handed to you by parents, teachers, or lyrics from the rebel youth culture manufactured and pimped by the record labels these days?
Despite what the counter culture and your peer groups would have you believe, we've all been through similar phases, including (probably) even your parents. Where you rebel by dressing in the shock clothing/piercings/tattoos du jour, they rebelled with pot and mass anti war assemblies, and their parents rebelled with swing and jazz, and so on. It's psychological, a by product of your growing need to assert your individuality from your influences (which has been almost entirely been family and educators up to that point).
We've all had similar experiences. Maybe we don't think you're in love because we've also been that age, and felt we were "in love", and seen our friends be "in love", and then, years later, discovered how we were with entirely different people, or alone once again, and that the person we were "in love" with turned into a total bitch, or slept around behind our backs, or decided to go to a different college, or started taking drugs, or became a victim in a fatal driving accident, or expands their horizons a little and finds out that there are actually more decent people out there than the 5 guys that weren't immature assholes in their high school, with more compatible interests, desires, and fantasies.
So forgive our pessimism. I only know a few couples that remained together for longer than a few months after high school graduation, and all of them got pregnant, and decided to get married as a result. I know another guy who got married, and then divorced her less than a year later. I know another guy who got a girl pregnant and disappeared on her, and hasn't heard from her since (and regrets it now that he's older). I myself have had so many relationships with women, of varying degrees, that I don't even really trust in my feelings of "love" anymore. And we are all in our early, early twenties.
That doesn't mean you aren't in love. Indeed, you ARE in love, as it satisfies your current definition. But I wouldn't make any bets on it lasting too long out of high school. Once you get out of the protective bubble of parents and teachers your values and standards start to change. A lot.
<blog>I'm a completely different person now compared to what I used to be. Back then I was a progressive Christian libertarian who felt God coursing through my life, who wanted to a nice girl to fall into my lap that I could marry exclusively and have 2.5 children and work for some big corporation and make a lot of money while writing novels published by major corporations on the side. Then around 19 I turned into an socialist deist who wanted to become voluntarily homeless and live off of carrion of the land. Thoreau was my hero, and I wanted to follow in his footsteps. Now I've become an anarchic capitalist agnostic who's ready and willing to build my own companies that generate revenue that will support myself so I don't have to work for anyone else again, and I'm not afraid to cater to the masses, or "sell out", to do it. I just refuse to work at helping someone else above me get rich. I'd rather help myself (and others) do it. I'll find a way to become immortal somehow, the only thing that's remained a constant in my life. I think I can use my game crafting experience to do it, not writing, and not running away to hide in a forest. </blog>