“The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it” says Henry David Thoreau, and this really hits home when I think about unrequited love. This wisdom shows a hard truth that when I offer my heart to someone who can’t return my feelings, I’m trading my precious time and emotional energy for something that gives nothing back.

Unrequited love is a complicated feeling. When I was younger, I thought this one-sided love was somehow noble or poetic. But experience has shown me how tough it really is. It creates a special kind of hurt that gets deeper as we age, not because we become more fragile, but because we become more aware that life is limited. Every moment spent wanting someone who can’t love us back is a piece of our life traded for less and less in return.

The pain creates opposing thoughts in my mind. I feel the hurt of failure and question if I’m good enough when someone doesn’t return my love. But at the same time, I know in my head that when someone doesn’t love me back, it’s usually about fit rather than my worth. This gap between what I know and what I feel creates its own unique kind of suffering.

How people respond to us comes from a mix of their past experiences, current situation, and future hopes. While past relationships definitely shape how others receive our affection, rejection happens because of many things we can’t control: timing, personal goals, values, chemistry, and sometimes just the mystery of attraction itself.