AU Speaks: Do you believe in love at first sight?

By Madi Oglesby | Opinion editor

We all know of that moment in the movies, where the insanely attractive man sees the insanely attractive woman. They lock eyes and smile, almost in awe of the other person’s unnaturally gorgeous features. The world goes blank and all they see is the other person.

This, as we have come to know very well, is that feeling of love at first sight. With no knowledge of the other person’s past, present or future, they are in love. And the movie continues on, ending (most of the time) with a happily ever after.

This sort of meet-cute has become less and less common in this day and age with the uprising of dating apps and other things of that sort. People have turned to technology and screens to determine their love life. Though, it seems some people are still holding out on that belief. Love at first sight is not lost in the wind to them.

I do not believe in love at first sight. I think that love is a deep feeling that is created through time. This takes time together to get to know each other in depth. I believe one can feel a deep infatuation for someone else by looking at them, but love is a whole different ball game.

It sounds cliché, but looks can be deceiving. It truly is on the inside that matters. Love is a big deal, a big feeling, and it takes time to develop in the right way. I don’t believe that you can know that someone is the right person for you to spend the rest of your life with just based off of one small interaction.

In a poll posted to the Augusta University shared Instagram story with 124 total answers, 56% of respondents agreed with my stance. Love at first sight is not a real thing.

“I most definitely do not believe in love at first sight because our looks can be deceiving,” says Hailey Ifill, a freshman political science major from Dacula.

“For example, though it is a bit dark, Ted Bundy was seen as incredibly charming and handsome, and we see what he did.”

She definitely made her point relevant. Looks can truly be deceiving, as you have no idea what may lie underneath the mask that someone is wearing for one night.

A couple of AU students felt exactly as I did. Believing that love is something created over time, with a shared, deep connection.

“I don’t believe in love at first sight because love is a commitment and a true bond with someone,” Sophia Knighton, a sophomore criminal justice major from Acworth shared. “Love at first sight is more of an infatuation and is purely just physical attraction.”

Just like in that movie scene moment, the two people only believe they’re in love when they lock eyes. They’re judging completely off of how good their hair looks that day or how dapper they look in their suit. What happens when they spend a few days together and the makeup comes off or the sweatpants are put on?

“You can’t really tell a whole lot about a person just from how they look. There are definitely some in-depth things that go along with love,“ shares Christopher Forrest, a freshman Cybersecurity major from Grovetown. “You can find someone and think they’re attractive, but they could have a really crappy personality or other things going on with them.”

While the margin of students at AU was not the greatest, it seems that not believing in love at first sight is the common thing in this generation. Truly focusing on the heart and what is inside is what matters more than their looks.However, there is another side to this belief. The poll showed that 44% of the students who responded did in fact believe in love at first sight. One student in particular shared his heartfelt belief in this phenomenon.

“I believe in the idea of love at first sight. It implies an immediate, intense attraction and connection with someone upon meeting them that I've seen happen a couple times in my life so far,” says Robert Thomas Jr., a cellular and molecular biology major from Dallas. “It brings me such joy knowing people found each other from the very beginning and never questioned the love they shared. I believe that if it’s meant to be then it will happen. I have never experienced it, but I have been a witness to it before, and I love to see it happen every time.”

To me, this is a beautiful way to look at it. Believing that humans can meet once and never look back. It is a very sweet thing to witness, I’m sure.

It’s interesting to me the way that people can view love at first sight. Truly believing in its beauty.

It’s an innocent, optimistic outlook on love and its development. While I don’t think I agree with this take, I definitely love the outlook.

Growing up with the Disney movie love stories, it’s hard not to have at least a little bit of a dreamy-eyed outlook on love. Reality sadly does have to set in at some point. In this day and age, dating and falling in love is a lot harder than before. So, I see why a majority of the students, including me, don’t believe in this phenomenon of falling in love at first sight.

Contact Madi Oglesby at auoglesby@augusta.edu.