You Have Been Misinformed: Does Love Require Compromise?

Occasionally I come across a person who is passionately sharing their ideas, and views on life that are in my opinion very skewed. These people and their opinions make for very lively conversation, and it becomes even more hilarious when they site social media posts as the source of these new found ideals. I have not walked the earth for that long, and I absolutely do not claim to be a relationship expert, but this new theory that "You should not have to compromise for love." is completely absurd. The person who proceeded to engage me in a very heated argument was Misinformed about what it means to compromise, and definitely misinformed about what it means to love. The definitions of compromise are listed below:

com·pro·mise

ˈkämprəˌmīz/

noun

1. 1.

   an agreement or a settlement of a dispute that is reached by each side making concessions.

   
   

   "an ability to listen to two sides in a dispute, and devise a compromise acceptable to both"

   
   

   synonyms:

   agreement, understanding, settlement, terms, deal, trade-off, bargain; More

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verb

1. 1.

   settle a dispute by mutual concession.

   
   

   "in the end we compromised and deferred the issue"

   
   

   synonyms:

   meet each other halfway, come to an understanding, make a deal, make concessions, find a happy medium, strike a balance; give and take "we compromised"

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2. 2.

   accept standards that are lower than is desirable.

   
   

   "we were not prepared to compromise on safety"

The sole act of loving a person does not require anything, they are right; however love and compromise are in a cause and effect relationship. When you love a person, enough to pursue a relationship( romantic or platonic) you have now entered into an agreement with that person. Love (the act it's self) is the cause, and Compromise(making a concession or agreement) is the effect. So yes, my sweet yet very naive single people you can love anything without consequence or requirements. But to act on that love, or to have that love reciprocated you must enter into some form of relationship, and it always requires a compromise unless the person your  loving is yourself. As you will find out from my future posts, it's my belief that humans were made for mating, and we will find our happiness through connections to others. In order to make and maintain those connections compromise is inevitable.