I think one of the main reasons we misunderstand romance is because of movies, music, and especially books.
And don't get me wrong, I love that kind of content. Some of my favorite movies are romantic comedies, and I'm the first person to become attached to a fictional couple. But I think we've been looking at it the wrong way.
We've become so accustomed to stories about perfect connections, grand gestures, and soulmates that we end up expecting the same things in real life.
We have idealized people we barely know. Let's be honest, we've all done it.
A few conversations, a shared interest, a couple of kind words, and suddenly we've created a complete version of that person in our heads. Not who they are, but who we want them to be.
And that's why there have been so many disappointments. We realize that they are not what we expected or that they do not meet the expectations that we ourselves created.
But there is another side to this.
Somewhere along the way, love also began to be reduced to something purely sexual. As if physical attraction was the most important part.

Perhaps we have spent so much time turning love into a fantasy or reducing it to attraction that we have forgotten what it really means.

There's nothing wrong with attraction, but love has always been deeper than that. It is understanding someone, caring about them, choosing them, respecting them and being willing to see them as they really are.