What is true love? If you have to ask, you haven’t found it yet. But we can tell you what to expect: the feeling that you have already accomplished everything that matters. When you realize you’ve found the person of your dreams, the first “hello” is your happy ending. It’s the realization that everything you’ve been searching for—everything you’ve been hoping for—actually exists. And you’re consumed, not by lust or infatuation, and not by some quixotic notion of romantic fulfillment, but by the simple rhythmic beating of another person’s heart. When you realize the meaning of true love, you become captivated, bound, and destined to a project bigger than yourself. And giving happiness and protection to that person matters, for the first time, more than your own life.

Would you die for her? Would you die for him? Would you give up everything as long as you knew you could be together? If she lost her smile, if he lost his charm—if every spark of attraction were suddenly lost, would you feel the same? Most people will never know what it means to say “yes.” But if you can say, in blatant honesty, that nothing in the world could matter more than the relationship you have, and that there is nothing in the world you wouldn’t give to protect it, then maybe—just maybe—you can answer the question: “What is true love?”

Yet maybe there is no answer. Maybe it’s just a feeling, something we’re not supposed to understand or define. But as long as we can hope for love, as long as we endeavor to meet the void in our hearts that only true love fulfills, the question will remain.

So as long as it does, let’s give it a shot. Would you take a bullet for her? Would you die for him? Do you accept that she will always have flaws? Do you accept that you can’t change him? Would you trust her with your deepest secrets? Could you give him your whole heart, knowing that if he breaks it you will have nothing left? If you can answer yes to all of the above, you’re a hero in the arms of love.

True love means to give and not to expect. It means to trust and not to control. It means to laugh for no reason, to adore with abandon, to dance like you have wings, and to know that sometimes when excitement fades or emergencies arise that there will be duty on your shoulders. And true love is to love no less when hours and days or years must pass of sacrifice. Because the promise of love is made in good times but proven in hardship. So if she lost her legs, if he lost his voice, would your love prevail then? If in the worst of circumstances everything you had learned to adore were suddenly torn away, would you admire her then?
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