“What is it like to kiss a girl?” my girlfriend blurted out, it seemed her creamy eyes were glazing over the dark waves of emotions like a searchlight would for it’s answers. This was just before we began dating. For her to accept her sexuality was foreign. The question flashed across the roaring skies of our hearts, lingering between the two of us. To many, love is religious. Love is conditional. Love has age limits. Love is the law. Love has boundaries. Love is a hobby, not a career. Love is shackled to a dream, hardly a reality. Love requires permission. If you find otherwise, then you have fit the generalized boxes. Various times have I seen groups of people dictate what marriage is supposed to be. Articles headline that love reaches endless possibilities, yet everyday someone’s affection and passion is being swallowed. I spent the first twenty years of my life being told how I was supposed to love. “It doesn’t pay enough”, “she’s a girl”, “that takes too much school”, “you need to focus on having an eternal family”. To question a taboo topic such as my sexuality or following my dream career, I finally made my own definition of love, and I was ready to answer my future girlfriend’s curiosity and all those who have wondered themselves what it is like to allow yourself to love the way fantasies portray. Love is what we see splattered across the hung canvas. Love is my grandparents' thirteen year age difference. Love is courageous acceptance of intuition rather than forced ego conformity. Love is to hear the birds rather than the cars. Love is to proclaim. Love is to change. Love is to quit my fast food job and take the position at a small Recreation Outdoor Gear shop, because I can. Love is holding her hand through a library, when I should be holding his hand instead. Love is love. So, “What is it like to kiss a girl?” When I gather my thoughts, returning to that thought provoking, however, simple question, I take her by the hand, with excitement bubbling within. She is about to embark on a journey, and with that, all I could manage to begin with was, “It’s everything that the books, movies and songs write about.” With a perspective, I’m Jess Rollins.
