Love (continued)

Like vs. Love. For starters, the word love.  It seems a little silly that you can use this word to describe a food, a color, a sport, a family member, a friend... the list goes on.  I love ice cream.  I love to run.  I love my fish.  I also love my friends and I love my family. My love for ice cream is in no way the same league as my love for my family however.  My love for my fish isn't on the same level as my love for my friends.  To what extent do you have to like someone or something before you can say that you instead love them/it anyways?  

Sometimes I love my family so much that it hurts.  That sounds weird and cliche and dumb and impossible and I am almost tempted to delete that statement. But I'm not going to.  I can't think of a better way to say it.  For example, when Alyssa had a bad race last night and texted me saying how disappointed she was in herself, my heart truly ached for her.  Whenever her or my mom or my dad are sad or troubled, I want so, so bad to be able to ease there pain.  No, I want to take the pain away from them.  I want to somehow, magically, be able to suck away their suffering and distress and transfer it to myself.

Just how much I love and need both my sister and my parents is really confusing when I attempt to analyze it. Lately any little thing that they do for me means the world to me.  When my dad picks me up from school or the bus, after I haven't seen him for weeks or months, he always brings me sparkling water and a piece of fruit.  I have never asked him to, but he know that I'm addicted to sparkling water and that I always eat fruit as an afternoon snack.  It's little gestures like those that make me teary eyed and I don't even no why.  As a girl who has cried from probably only two movies in her entire life, it's a bit odd that these things have that type of effect on me.  So for future reference, bring me a pear and a bottle of sparkling water and I will love (like?) you forever.