Love at first sight is a mystery. Is it knowing you love someone when you first see them, or is it just a sense of attractiveness? The question is, is love at first sight real? Or is it a made-up belief that has never been debunked? For some, love at first sight is just a moment of attractiveness, one that is brief and doesn’t have much significance. For others, however, love at first sight isn’t just a quick moment of attractiveness; it is an indefinite feeling that can last a whole relationship, or even an entire lifetime. 

Mrs. Scott is a geometry and precalculus teacher at Yorba Linda High School. She has been with her husband for over 20 years and recalls when she first met him in high school. “I met him when I was only 15 through a mutual friend. It wasn’t an instant feeling of love; it was more or less like something that came progressively, as we became friends and got to know each other” says Mrs. Scott (S).

Mrs. Scott agrees that love isn’t something she instantly felt the moment she saw her husband; instead, it was a feeling she developed as she got to know him. This goes to prove how love at first sight may not be an event that occurs the moment you lock eyes with someone, but something that comes with knowing them. 

Mr. Hipwell is another teacher at Yorba Linda High School.  He has been with his wife for quite some time. Mr. Hipwell admits he was “attracted to her at first,” but it wasn’t much more than that feeling. However, he also adds, “When we met, we were both dating other people, so it wasn’t necessarily a feeling that came the moment we first met each other.” 

Whether you believe in love at first sight or not, most agree that love is not something felt at first sight. It is very common for the media to overromanticize everyday occurrences; in this case, it is making eye contact with someone. It is not unknown for a romance movie or novel to contain characters having love at first sight. This is likely a source for society’s belief in love at first sight, since it is evident that most people do not believe in, or at least haven’t experienced, love at first sight. The reality is that love at first sight is not what people think it is.

Though it can occur, most people describe seeing their partner for the first time as just an initial sense of attractiveness. So, the question stays unanswered, leaving you with the choice of listening to the romantic in you and believing that love at first sight is real, or letting the logical side of you believe that it is nothing more than an initial sight of affection.