swimming pool.

No matter what the hopeless romantics say, I will stand by my opinion that love comes at a cost. Be it reciprocated or unreciprocated love, there's always a sacrifice one or two parties must incur. The problem is, most of the time, nobody explicitly say how much it costs (probably because nobody really knows how much it costs). Please don't get me wrong, 'cost' here is not referring to mere monetary values, which is utterly superficial and none of my concern. Well it's true that one can't get full eating off love; one needs bread. But it's not what I'm talking about. Love comes at a cost. The cost can materialize as personal freedom, personal space, friends, and the list goes on.

By the way, to me, love seems like getting a swimming pool.



Let's say Miss X wants a swimming pool in the backyard of her luxurious mansion. The idea was exquisite at first, so she calculates the construction costs and estimates the maintenance costs. Soon she installs the swimming pool, gets so happy and invites all her friends to come over and have a chic cocktail party by the new pool in the house. The next month, she enjoys sun-tanning by the pool, but getting into the pool may be too much of a hassle. It's pretty common for the swimming pool owners' to find that they underestimate the maintenance costs, only to further underutilize their beautiful, private swimming pool. Too bad, soon enough, the swimming pool will get abandoned.

The relationship between the swimming pool and Miss X somehow represents my view on human relationships. It's just a matter of who's the swimming pool: first admired, then abandoned in the end. Sadly, abandonment doesn't work both ways; the swimming pool can't abandon Miss X. The construction and maintenance costs are not meant to be taken literally; I was thinking more of emotional costs from jealousy, occasional fights, possessiveness, and so on. Now everyone hopes to be Miss X, who obviously feels much less pain. That's why we don't get to choose whether we want to be Miss X or the swimming pool. Too bad.

Of course, there are always some Miss X's who never got bored of her swimming pool till death do them part. Everyone wants to be that swimming pool too, the one which found the particular Miss X. Similarly, we don't get to choose and it's just too bad.