What is Loyalty?

When I was young and still attending school, all I had in my mind was about study, books, text books, homeworks, and library. Never crossed my mind of wanting to fall in love or to look for boyfriends, or even talk about boys. All my conversations were about books... or which library to go to. Although some of my classmates were dating or exchanging love letters, I was never interested in dating, nor was I interested in any relationship.

But nowadays, school-age girls, especially teenage girls are prone to fall in love so easily, and falling out of love is much easier. They treat love with so much carelessness. Even when she professed her love to someone, but at the same time, she is in love with someone else. At any one time, she can be in love with more than one guy. There is no loyalty at all.

Adolescent love or Puppy Love as we used to called it back then, it is more of an infatuation rather than actual love. Teenage girls - they are lost in their own world, searching for their own identity, but somehow, always copying the identity of the guy she is with. How sad. No principle. But when they fell out of love with that certain someone, they blame the latter of their unhappy life, or what they have missed out while dating. After all the time, effort and sacrifices, sometimes to the extent of being her beck and call, all are wasted.

They poured out their deepest secret to anyone who is willing to listen, nevermind if that person is someone she never met. Nevermind if she doesn't even know how that person feels about her. They live a sad life, they have too many sad stories, too many problems, suicidal sometimes, unbalance in security or mentally. Where are their prides? But who do we actually blame for their mess?

Why do we fall out of love? Perhaps the cruelest of all words are: 'I don’t love you any more'. To have love taken away, and perhaps not understanding why, can shatter the most confident person. As anyone who has ever had a sad love affair knows, the heart, and pride, can take a long time to heal. The pain is felt physically as well as emotionally. All those time that were wasted, while trying to keep the relationship alive. But not for these teenage girls, they don't feel the impact of falling out of love. One minute she is madly in love with one person, promise to be together 'til end of time, cherish their love with all her heart, but the next minute she is ogling at other guys.

What is the most important invisible force that keeps individuals connected? What protects relationships from being broken by the storms of life?

Loyalty immediately comes to my mind. But what is loyalty? Where does it come from? Intuitively, we know that it is stronger than feelings of love. It is even broader than friendship, because it is possible to have loyalty without friendship, such as loyalty to your employer. To be loyal means that you will never betray a friend's confidence for personal gains. It means that you will not listen to innuendoes and refuse to question your friend's integrity until you have direct confirmation. It also means that you will not give up on a relationship, simply because of some misunderstanding or difficulty. Finally, it means that you will never exploit people's trust or misuse their loyalty.

We can always point to a dog and say: "Here is an example of loyalty". But we are better than dogs aren't we? then how come we are sometime lack of the ability to be loyal?

Sad...very sad.

So, to those young girls who think that falling in love is only a penny to spend, I feel deeply sorry for you...