Love At First Sight

If someone has posted this topic already I apologize. :p

Anywho, I hear a lot of people say nowadays that they fell in love with their significant other the first time they seen them. Thing is, the other side of the relationship says it was a few months before LOVE actually started to form in their heart.
Now obviously there are two sides to every story and everything...but it honestly blows my mind that one side is head over heels from the get go (if their not lying I guess) then the other is like ehh I'm feeling it out right now. I mean...I guess my hopeless romantic side cant help but feel kind of sad for the first one. If the relationship ends their the ones who feel it the most although in retrospect, they shouldnt allow their hearts to become so involved so quickly.
As you can tell... Its really a difficult situation (or can be) and for someone like me, whose been on both sides of that spectrum (more so the first when I was a tennager), each relationship has different dynamics and whatnot.
Long story short, I'm just curious if anyone still believes in love at first sight? As for me....well I believe you can have a very strong connection to someone...but full blown love...I dont think so.

I look at it more as attraction at first site, but some can call it love if they feel like it. Love comes I all shapes and sizes. I can say I love you to friends or to my lover and it can be totally different in context.

I know with my current boyfriend we didn't even acknowledge each other let alone love one another right away. Our love grew after we started to date and over time we both love or another passionately.

There's also lust at first site where you see someone and think "damn that person is so fine, I want in their pants!". Not necessarily love, but definitely a hormonal reaction lol.

I don't believe in love at first site or soul mates (the latter at least not in the way romance fiction makes it out to be). I believe that you can come to care and love for someone strongly and wish to commit to them and no one else. If something happens where that love is lost then it just wasn't meant to be. I also believe you can have more then one love in your lifetime and sometimes at once, though you have to make choices since not everyone is happy with a 3-some lol.

With love you can only have a deep and strong one over time. Even if you love someone initially that love is still young and the other person may not be on the same wavelength. You can also break from a relationship earlier then later usually (this depends but the longer you commit to someone the harder it is to part... Unless they were a jerk and did something shitty lol).

It's just my opinion. I'm talking about real love, not just sexual desire. It's impressively common that people interprets sexual desire and passion as real love. It can be a mean to meet someone and develop a relationship? Of course yes, but it's a mean (of inmate communication and mutual enjoy), not the end, mind that. We tend to call to passion loveless relationships as light ones, so I do, I'm excluding those.

- Love at first sight exits (and I'll include at first glance, short span and so).

You're really loving the person as a whole? Wrong. You're only loving what you're seeing at first glance. If times pass, you'll still love that person? Can be yes, can be nope. You'll still love what you seen at first glance, but you may or not love what you see when really knowing the person.

- How much time is needed to know someone?

Relative. Though I can say with vastly confidence you'll need at least six months to make you a basic idea of who is him/her as a whole. Most people will need about a year, or two, or three, or even up to five (it can take a whole life, too). The reason this is so relative comes form the fact that you need time to check if certain things are true, their details and so. And... you need to live life experiences with that person, too, to know how they react, what they do and so. Those things can take their time. Frankly, you'll never know someone at 100%, but luckily it isn't needed, as long you know a lot about the other is often enough (let's say 66%).

- Never marry/have a baby without knowing well someone

That is. Those are decisions that MUST be taken with responsibility, because you're taking the life of the other person, and yours, too. No, you don't need just love to make em' work as they should. You need confidence in you and your partner, too. You also need to know the other person, too. Yeah, you also need love, but you need confidence and knowledge, too.

- Don't live with other person unless you know them... at least somewhat.

Yeah, I know some people wants to live asap a few weeks ago with their loved ones and so. It's a bad idea. While things can work and everything be wonderful, things can also be really awful. You don't need to know too much the person to start living with them, sure, but at least take some time knowing the other person isn't dangerous (like being obsessive) and that a decent coexistence can be archived, too.

Note Love at first glance that long last the time is rare, though (mainly because it's rare that you, and your partner, both falls in first glance love that also happens to last). It isn't necessary needed, neither. You may not love someone until you meet em' more, for example (and that's why some friends changes to partners with the time).

Note #2: We can also love at the same degree or even stronger our family, friends and so. The unique difference with partners is that you also need a desire/wish to share your life with the other person (often in an inmate way), and you need more companionship (trust and effort) than the usual to make it work, too.

I don't really think there is a real answer.
But my personal feelings are that you can fall for somebody at first site, but I tend to personally reserve the idea of loving another as something deeper than a singular sensory stimulation. There's nothing wrong with believing in it though really.

Thanks for the responses guys :)

Hm.. not sure honestly, I might have actually felt envy instead of love and I have thought at times there were beautiful women and I'd like too get too know them or lust but I'm not completely sure.

Love at first sight might be real I guess, but for me personally I think it's just not very realistic. How can you fall in love with someone when you don't even know them? Even if someone is handsome/pretty attraction based on physical appearances aren't exactly what I would call love. I'd like to think of it as a form of lust rather than anything else.

I haven't been in love at first sight so I don't really know what it's like so forgive me if I'm being judgmental.

I think more than anything it is infatuation. I think love is something you develop with strong emotional attachments. I think for the most part, when you think you love someone at first sight, you think more along the lines of you would like to love them, but you can't determine that unless you get to know the person more. Love is a strong emotional feeling, and it's something you can't really form that first moment. Infatuation is a short lived feeling.

First "sight" implies visual only, meaning whatever you like about the person is purely what they look like on the outside, and probably also how they carry themselves in general public. That's, as dreamingforever puts it, infatuation. I've experienced it. It's not fun at all.

Love is about more than appearances, and only happens after acceptance of all that more stuff.

Nope. I don't believe it's possible. To assume you will love that person through thick and thin without knowing anything about them would be naive. I love my girlfriend with all my heart, I don't think I could ever be like this with anyone else but it took time, effort and compromise for us to get to such a good place. You can't have that connection right from the start with someone.

Sure, you can love someone physically (especially if they match up with your ideal preferences) but I don't think anyone can love someone emotionally without getting to know them, otherwise your just fooling yourself.

Consider this: what if you were blind? Is sight the only sense that lets you instantly "fall in love" with someone? No, it's all just attraction.

I love a lot of people at first sight. Just later they get retarded and i leave. Basing love on a few secs of seeing them leads to disappoint. Good body, good face, bad personality.

I am one that says the word "love" is used way to much. To me people have diluted it so much to when someone says "love you" I feel they are only doing it as a kindness. So with that said I do not believe in love at first sight. From my experience the people who said they fell in love with me at first sight or friends who said that about gfs/bfs are no longer with that person.

I don't believe in love at first sight. I've heard people say they they fell in love with someone after first sight but they are probably confusing it with lust.
I've never just looked at a guy and thought "damn, I want to spend my whole life with him."

Mhm, not quite for me.

I kinda see it as absurd to fall in love or like someone after just meeting them. I'd have to know them for quite a bit of time before ever thinking in them as a potential love interest. If anything, I'd say when I do see a girl for the first time, it's just "Hey, I'm attracted to this persons looks/personality".

Like I said, it takes time for me.