Claire Kunzier, Editor 

I don’t know if it’s just me, but every show, no matter the genre, has their main characters just dropping the L word to any shawty. I’m not talking about the show “The L Word” but the phrase “I love you” (ILY) which is a common way to affirm one’s feelings for another, also a way to make me feel uncomfortable but that’s something we’re not getting into. While I clearly don’t have words of affirmation as a love language, I do have common sense and knowledge that the word love and the phrase “I love you” is a big thing and you can’t just say it to anyone. In real life, people take their time and develop feelings at varying speeds within their own unique situation, but in the TV world, falling in love apparently takes three episodes and one big fight for one of the biggest affirmations to just come out of one person’s mouth. Time in shows is obviously different and moves at a much faster pace than real life, but normally a season is a month long with each episode being a week, or there’s no time construct and we’re all confused. In dramas, sitcoms, comedies and teen shows, the month = season and episode = week is usually how it goes and these shows just so happen to be the worst ILY droppers. There have been seasons where characters go from hating one another then professing their love to the other in the next episode, AND THAT’S JUST NOT ALWAYS TRUE LIKE HOW THEY WRITE IT OUT TO BE. In all relationships, especially teen ones, people actually have no idea what they’re doing and aren’t just out here professing their love in big dramatic scenes. Also, it’s okay to not recepticate ILY when you don’t actually know if you’re in love yet. It’s worse for someone to say it and not mean it than to be honest and say they don’t know yet, but here are my true feelings. It’s not the end of the world like it’s shown in shows and movies, being in love isn’t the point of a relationship, it’s growing and being happy within a partnership that has emotions; fulfillment for both people. There needs to be communication on these feelings first —again, not a topic for right now, but take a comm class and figure it out. TV isn’t real life, but damn, they need to stop acting like people just suddenly fall in love with everyone they’ve ever dated after a month of dating. And that’s the tea.