The whole "love at first sight" thing

[Theoryal]

Personally I believe it is possible since I've experienced it with a few friends. I saw them from afar and thought they looked lovely and sweet and I could just sort of sense their character - that they were someone I wanted to know and would surely cherish. And each time I've acted upon that and gone over to get to know that girl I haven't been wrong, she's been sweet and gentle and interesting and wonderful, that spark of kindred spiritness has quickly come to light, and I've loved each of those girls ever since (even if circumstances have eventually separated me from some of them). While getting to know them further deepens understanding and connection and strengthens my care, I would say it was there from the very start. As I see this friendship-love as the necessary base upon which to build a romantic relationship I figure if it's possible with friends it's possible with romantic partners too.

Of course nobody ever turns out perfect, of course differences and misunderstandings and conflicts will always eventually come up in relationships, but so far it seems to me like those ones where I instantly knew, rather than slowly coming to like someone, have proven to have fewer difficulties. Perhaps I've just been very lucky :)

Granted, I do think a lot of the time people confuse infatuation with love, confuse physical attraction with love, confuse their wishful imagination of what they'd like someone to be like with love for that person, and then later find themselves disappointed or distracted by someone new.

And of course Love isn't just a fuzzy feeling in response to someone's good qualities, love doesn't require reciprocation, it doesn't even require liking someone in fact (I mean think of caring for family members that you still find annoying to deal with in person), it's a choice on your part to care for the other person's well being, and I see it as a general attitude in life, you can have a loving outlook and care about people generally... but care more strongly for a few special people of course.

anyways, those are my thoughts.

[Tarfeather]

Of course nobody ever turns out perfect, of course differences and misunderstandings and conflicts will always eventually come up in relationships, but so far it seems to me like those ones where I instantly knew, rather than slowly coming to like someone, have proven to have fewer difficulties. Perhaps I've just been very lucky :)

Probably not as much luck as insight.

[DexM]

... but "love is blind", ain't it? ;)

I'm not sure if it's LOVE at first sight... but it could be attraction. Love is a whole lot of things, imo.

Oh, lord! You just gave me some flashbacks to that horrific scene from Revenge of The Sith.

Attraction is a part of love. Not just an aesthetic attraction but attraction to characteristics and personality. You can detect it all from a first meeting, that a person is everything that you want, that they get you on a level that nobody has ever got you, and it's as if all your little jigsaws are fitting together. You may not have that light bulb moment, and it you may not say "I'm in love!", but you know it's different and when you look back you see that love was there in it's most basic form.

[Skycaptain]

I think that, as a concept, love at first sight does exist. I can reference my sister and her now husband here. They met at a pub, quite by chance, and now 19 years later are happily married with a teenage son. So, whilst if Cupid has ever fired an arrow in my direction it has missed, sometimes the target can be hit

[Skipper Valvoline]

I've experienced love at first sight.

It was when I raised my eyes from the regular tubs to the ultra-large tubs of Cool Whip. ^_^

[Geohdu]

Love at first sight.. I fail to see how it would work. You don't know their personality, their values, their wishes, their dreams, their interests... so how can you love them?

You fall in love with the idea you have created of that person based on what information you have extracted from their appearance and their attitude. As it's your idea, it's obviously going to be positive, thus making that person perfect, and lovable at first sight. Your idea then slowly changes as you get to know them, accomodating the reality bit by bit.

Or like a smack in the face if the person turns out to be too different to your idea...

I'm not sure what the difference is between "love at first sight" and "infatuation" though. Any ideas?