What is a crush (and who named it that)?

Crush n.  1. An intense but usually short lived infatuation.    2.  the object of such an infatuation

Love n. 1. A profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person

What exactly is a crush? How does it differ from love? How can you tell the difference?

A crush is an intense feeling of liking someone and hoping, praying, wishing that they like you back, more than just the “yeah, she’s cool, she’s my neighbor” type of like.

Crushes express that you think someone stands out from the crowd; that you experience feelings of excitement when you are around them.

Crushes feel good and most everyone has a crush on someone at some point in time or another. Some are big, some are small, some seem earth shattering—you can’t even get your algebra homework done without drifting off into la-la-crush land.

These earth shattering, all encompassing crushes, are often the ones that can get confused with love. The intense feelings of a crush are so big and so powerful, it seems cruel just to call your feelings a crush. The enormity of the feelings make you think that you might be in LOVE.

Love is a more permanent and deeper feeling. Deeper? How can anything feel deeper than what you are feeling right now? I mean, come on! Your whole world is spinning on the axis of this person. How much deeper can you get? (Not to mention, that your body may be feeling things in deeper places than you ever knew existed.)

But, you need to think of love as, well, an aged mature expensive cheese. What?  Stinky cheese? Yes. Just wait a moment – and remember, it’s only an ANALOGY.

Anyone can go into a store and buy cheddar cheese – it doesn’t take that long to make.  Just like a crush, crushes don’t take that long to develop either, and yet they do taste good. But, really fine, flavorful and rich cheese takes lots of time to develop. This type of cheese is left to ripen for long periods of time. And so too must love – it ripens over a longer period of time and its flavor is richer and more complex than a crush.

Hate cheese? Don’t get the analogy? You’re probably not alone. Here’s another thought:

The difference between a crush and love can also be measured in how truly comfortable you are around the other person. With a crush, even though you have intense feelings for this person, you might still feel unsure about yourself in front of them and try always to be your “best” with them.  Within a relationship that has ripened to love, you feel incredibly SECURE around the other person and can just be yourself around that person, even if it’s not so pretty at times.

At this point, the big thing to remember is this: A crush is fun! It feels good! Enjoy it!  But don’t rush it. You’re in your teen years; you have lots of time for aged stinky cheese later. For now enjoy the moment and be thankful that you have something great that you can daydream about during history class.

Post Question:

Have you ever had a crush? If so, would you share how it felt?

Answer the post question here

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  • WLKHS1310
    Posted at 16:40h, 08 November Reply

    Yes I have had a crush before in my life. The feeling of a crush is a very weird felling that is hard to put into words.

  • WLKHS1407
    Posted at 14:05h, 08 November Reply

    Yes I have had a crush before, and it felt fine. It wasn’t a big crush so it did not make me go crazy for the person, and it was not heartbreaking. I also wanted to try my best around the person to impress them, which made life challenging. Although the crush didn’t affect my life too much, it did make it uncomfortable at times.

  • WLKHS1219
    Posted at 01:10h, 08 November Reply

    Yes I had a crush. it was a nice one, we usually talk everyday and see most of the days. We hanged out at weekends, and had so much fun. We had a nice and calm days. Now we talk through social media, but does not hang out because i moved to another place.