Falling: (noun) moving downward, typically rapidly and freely without control.

That is the exact, honest-to-God definition of the word. What do you think when you hear this word? A scraped knee after a nasty tumble off a bicycle, skydiving, bungee jumping - all things that make your heart jump into your throat and your stomach to twist into knots.

But wait, some of you hopeless romantics will insist, what about FALLING in love?

Touché, you lovey-dovey folks out there. I've heard of that timeless saying time and time again - and trust me, I have not forgotten about it.

Falling in love; let's think about this for a moment. Having no control over your feelings, no way to reign in your deep devotion as you plummet DOWN. Down into - what? If we're going to get metaphorical about this, the first thing I can come up with is falling into a deep, quite possibly dark, pit of... love? Forgive me for having taken the less-traveled road with my opinions. But I'd much rather have some control over my actions around the person I decide to give my heart to than have absolutely no way of knowing what's happening. Go ahead, call me a control freak.

Let me give you the brighter side of my thinking. When I find a guy, when I finally discover the one I will give my heart to, it will not be a guy who makes me feel uncontrolled, unruly... insecure. And if any of you reading this find out someday that I have in fact chosen that sort of partner in life, feel free to jump through this screen and smack me back to my senses. I don't want to FALL in love. I don't want a love that is a frenzy, that would never go anywhere, that leaves me... trapped.

Because if you think about it, if you fall, you're eventually gonna hit rock bottom. The reckless, foot-loose and fancy-free love will end the same second the free fall has ended.

I want a guy who loves me for each and every one of my imperfections - who celebrates them, even. Who loves me despite my odd TMNT fetish, my childish fantasies, my foolish actions. I want my stomach to erupt into butterflies any time our eyes meet. Someone who I can't wait to be around, even if I'm only wearing my grungy clothes from a lazy day, because I know he won't care if I'm Prada or a hand-me-down sweatshirt. I want to feel like I'm levitating ten feet off the ground every time he kisses me. No expectations of what either of us want from the other.

Free.

Safe.

Enlightened.

I don't wanna fall in love.

I want to RISE in it.

I want to feel as if I could take off and orbit the planet each and every time that special someone says he loves me. I want to feel like I can do anything, see anything, be anything, as long as I'm in his arms. Like I could never be tied down as long I can see that smile of his.

No panic.

No apprehension.

Just relief, and so much of it that it feels like I weigh nothing at all.

Because when I do find him, when I find the one, I know I'll feel like I'm flying.