Whenever you would walk across the street, meet up with your friends, or even watch a movie, the main topic of discussion and observation in the area is no doubt on romantic relationships. Romance has been needed for the passion, expression, and intimacy of being around another like-minded person. Yet again, romantic relationships shouldn’t always be the main representation of a relationship. Relationships promoted should be platonic ones, since it’s easier to work through expectations and pressures of each other. And with that, you are given room to grow, to which it’s more conflicting to change while acting in a romantic relationship. And of course, love doesn’t particularly have to be about falling in love or acting as being in love, the importance of love is about expressing care and understanding those around you. 

      Undoubtedly, it’s more simple to not fall into the pressures and expectations of one another. Majority of relationships, whether it be familial or friendship, already start from a place of knowing and understanding each other, whether it be from growing up together or learning about one another. This makes it easier to be intuitive of how one another feels about each other. For example, what if you hesitantly accepted going on rollercoasters with a friend, despite having a fear of them. Your friend then would try to clarify if you would actually want to go on one, having known about your fear beforehand. Wanting to know for certain that you would want to participate in a risky activity, it’s easy for you to not be pressured, since your friend doesn’t want to make you feel bad. In romantic relationships, expectations are often already set before dating a person. This makes it hard being the person in the relationship because they would have to grow through subjection and maintenance to be the person their partner wants in order to keep them. Because of that, it can be acknowledged that it will be easier to handle relationships that are familial or friendly without succumbing to standards, rather than if they were romantically involved.

      Inevitably, self-growth is enhanced more in platonic relationships rather than in romantic ones. In these relationships, the two people stay together for long amounts of time, whether it be growing up together since youth or meeting once and somehow staying with each other for the rest of their lives. Because these relationships are closely loyal to each other, it’s easy to grow up with the person around you. The more you hang out with them, the more risks you two will want to take, the more ideas you two will talk about together, and the more you will learn about each other. And with that, you will grow to become more understanding of one another and others around you due to the influence of being with an alike and considerate person. As defined by Cross River Therapy, “we lose touch with almost 50% of the friends we make,” so it’s highly noticeable that no matter what, you are with the people who help you move along a positive path. Meanwhile, you would tend to feel more restricted in romantic relationships. Since again you would have to be subjected to your love interest, it’s harder to grow. In relationships, both parties want to continue to be in love without any hardships or arguments, making it easy for the two to suppress their hidden feelings on matters, making it harder for you to learn about each other and your own mistakes. Therefore, it should be understood that it will be harder to grow and learn if subject ideas are in place in especially romantic relationships, and that it’s more important to evolve as humans, which can be most helpful in platonic relationships. 

      Unquestionably, platonic relationships show that love doesn’t specifically apply to romance. From the 12th century to our modern-day, romance has been expressed as the passion and attraction to a person. Whether it could be shown in everyday life to a person or depicted in poems, artwork, letters, cinematography, or music, romance is portrayed timelessly. But because it is told time and again, it neglects not only the other connections the person has with others, but only promotes the idea that love is romantic. But to define love, as from The Collector, is viewing the “beloved” and how the viewer’s “field of vision” sees that “lover” in their eyes. Love as shown isn’t about a single type of relationship, it’s about the perception one has with a person. And this love can be expressed in dating, friendships, and family. But overall love is the entity of attraction and desire, so why can’t we view others’ desire as platonic? 

      Conclusively, platonic love is a form of love and understanding in an unromantic light and it’s important to remember the value it brings us. We benefit from understanding one another and making sure we keep each other secure. We can grow up together, and learn from our experiences together. And that love itself can be proven to not always be romantic, and that our perception of our love doesn’t have to stick to conventional traditions. That being said, the only way we can promote these types of relationships is by examining and representing our own. We can appreciate the moments that made you happy in your familial relationship or friendship, and we can hope to see more of the friendship as time comes. If we are able to express ourselves in romantic love, we can also express ourselves in platonic love as well.