To everyone out there who is still searching for their one “big” love, let me tell you, you’re not alone. Maybe you’re looking for love, maybe you had love once but then lost it, or maybe you’re in a relationship and you’re just wondering where all the love went. No matter your situation, you should never give up hope that love will eventually find its way to you.

If someone asked you how you would define love, what would you say? Would you say that love is a physical attraction, a common sense of humour or similar interests? Or would you say that love is a feeling? A bond between two people that is unexplainable, something no one else in this world could understand. Is it possible to define love?

If you’ve ever been in love, you’ll know that it’s not all rainbows and kisses. It can also be passionate and angry and long sleepless nights. And that’s ok, that’s what it should be! Because when you care about someone so deeply, love shows itself in so many different ways. It’s all consuming, frustrating and intense; but it’s also beautiful, generous and surprising.

But sometimes I think our generation gives up on love too easily. We tend to give up because we’ve failed to hold on tight and realise that love is something that has to be worked on. You have to invest yourself and give it all of your energy because love is precious and fleeting and something to be cherished. And when it comes to the Millennial Generation, I think that the problem is: people can promise to love you, but they can’t promise love itself.

The generation that we’ve grown up in has given us all sorts of myths about love. There’s the ‘soulmate’ myth, which has taught us to search the world over to find the one single person we’re supposed to spend the rest of our lives with. And then there’s ‘love at first sight’ myth, which has built unreasonable expectations in our minds, and in my opinion, confused the definitions of love and lust. These things aren’t realistic and in order to truly let love into our lives, we need to shift our perspectives. Just because sometimes people suck and situations suck, doesn’t mean that love sucks!

There’s a simple way to deconstruct everything and this is the one single reason you should never give up on love. And that’s because, love doesn’t only exist between two people in a romantic relationship. Just because you might not have love in the form of a significant other, doesn’t mean that love doesn’t exist in your life at all. Love is literally all around you! It exists in the way you feel towards your friends, it lives inside people who are passionate about something, it’s in the hearts of people who care about others, and it’s the way you feel about your family. The Dalai Lama once said: “Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.” I couldn’t agree with something more.

The Millennial Generation is just as capable of love as the generations that came before us. We are open to love in so many different ways; we’re more transparent with our opinions, we’re better at communicating our feelings and we’re one of the most compassionate generations to date. We’re not willing to give up on love, because we’re addicted to the chase! We’re excited about what’s coming next and who’s waiting for us just around the corner.

So if you’re single, don’t give up on love this Valentines Day. Ever heard the old saying that love will find you when you least expect it? I’ve always found that to be true, for myself personally, my siblings, my parents and virtually all of my friends. Almost every single one of them found love when they weren’t looking for it.

Love is a magical thing no matter what generation you belong to. Love gives us purpose and has the power to change everything. Have faith in love and when the timing is right, you’ll find the person you’re supposed to be with and everything will be right in the world. Stop worrying about what forever will look like and start focusing on right now.