A Criticism on the Criticism of Love

This is the speech I wrote for my AP Language class. If you have the time and patience, I like to ask that you, my dear albeit small audience, read my speech and comment or tell me about anything I need to fix or if it's effective or if it just basically sucks before I present it to my class in two days. Thank you.

Romeo and Juliet is a classic love story, or so our English teachers always told us. We often scoff at the idea of teenagers dying for a week-old love and scorn the English department for ever thinking we could find personal meaning in the hysterical and outlandish dialogue and events. Interestingly, we carry this disdain with us once we leave the classroom, judging relationships left and right. Everyday, people are critiquing, criticizing, and discrediting the love that we teenagers feel for the people around us. Our society tells us that high school sweethearts are immature and lustful, friendships are disguised romantic endeavors or laden with homosexual undertones, anyone with a healthy relationship with their family is weak, or worse, a total dork.

But are these accusations and hurtful words an overarching umbrella of truth, covering all individuals and relationships? Of course not. Love is vital; love is precious. It's what builds us up, brings us together, binds us close. How dare anyone discount such an integral part of a human's experience? To take away one's heart is to take away humanity.

A teenager's heart is brimming with romantic love; such a relationship is a miracle in an adolescent's life. There is so much to experience, so much to gain and enjoy from young love: sunlit afternoons dotted with kisses on the nose, heart melting texts read in the dark of night, warm palms parting in the halls before class.

Young men and women can learn valuable lessons from such a partnership, and yet, these relationships are accused of leading to rebellion, unchaste living, pregnancies. While these disappointing actions can be born of infatuation, we can not demonize all teenagers who take a fancy to one another. The dearest of friends who delight in the subtle magic of a hug or a secret, knowing smile are no less mature than the club hopping adults who take their one night stand and accept society's stamp of approval.

Even the "practical" argument that points out that the majority of high school sweethearts never get married is invalid. Though his proposal may be to attend a dance than one of marriage, a well meaning teenager's love, though sweaty palmed and stuttering, comes from a very genuine, very real place. Romeo loved Juliet, not for her money or her sister or her hot body. He loved her because she was the truest love he had ever known. No one could, or should, attempt to destroy that.

Perhaps more concerning is the criticism teens often receive of their platonic friends. Same and opposite gender friendships are ever so valuable, giving us a welcome place to sit at lunch and a shoulder to cry on when adults are crazy and peers don't understand. A friend can be one of the most enduring relationships, and yet, the world is constantly jeopardizing our connections. Girls are cliquey, petty, and only looking to analyze, judge, and blame everyone else. Boys can't express affection for fear of being derogatorily labeled gay. Any boy and girl who are friends must either be secretly dating or eternally described by the dreaded "friend zone."

These negative ideas and attitudes serve only to delegitimize the love we feel for others, breaking it down until friendship is a mere concept that is easily swayed and dissolved by a move across the country, a minor dispute, the social confines of a community. When it becomes unacceptable to spend a whole day laughing together or to share clothes and food and money, it becomes unacceptable for Romeo to have been heartbroken by Mercutio's death. How can it be that a fictional boy be angered by a friend's murder and a boy in our day be unable to casually say "I love you" to his friends, male or female? We can not stand for such stereotyping and teasing, especially when it is directed at so precious a possession as friendship.

Finally, how could we forget our families? The family is a collection of people you're born into, the humans you are practically bred to love. Despite the unconditional love we're all supposedly endowed with for our families, we all know that as teenagers, we yearn for feelings of freedom and independence during this tempestuous time. We feel a certain exhilaration as we let go of our parents' hands and quit playing Barbies and video games with our siblings.

But what of those souls who hold fast to their roots, showing an undying love and respect for their families? Are they needy or naive? Perhaps. But can we ever clump an entire population into one negative mold? No.

Those who go to their parents for advice or spend their time with their relatives are no less of an individual than the next person. Rather, families increase our sense of self, giving our lives a unique set of values, a unique history, a unique foundation on which to build our own life upon. For all their faults, Juliet loved and respected her parents up until the end, bemoaning the existence of the feud but not of her family itself. Familial bonds have been and always will be a gift to humanity; we have no right to deface such an institution, especially at the risk of others' love.

No matter how true or deep a love, there will always be someone who fights against it. There will forever be a disapproving father, a jealous or cruel bystander, a high school student who humorously comments that he's glad Romeo and Juliet died. However, we can not stop experiencing that wonderfully ambiguous feeling of love. We must stand up in the face of opposition and calmly reaffirm our appreciation, our affection, our admiration for one another.

Relationships are meant to be made, kept, and cherished, and as we, the teenagers of today, become the adults of tomorrow, we can not afford lose our love. We can see ourselves in Shakespeare's classic, for we are all star crossed lovers, wishing only to love and be loved in return by the people who made our lives possible, who fill our lives with joy, and who make our lives worth living.