Love at first sight?

Now I’m all one for a good soppy romantic movie. You know the heartbreaker, tear jerker movies like Titanic and The Notebook; where the two main protagonists fall deeply and madly in love. Well, what I would like to take a look at is, does this in any way reflect in reality?

It was the movie ‘Dear John’ which inspired me to ask the question is love really at first sight? For those of you who have not seen the movie, Dear John is about a Special Forces Army Sergeant called John Tyree. John is home on a two-week leave from Germany. He meets a young girl called Savannah Curtis when he dives off the pier and into the ocean to retrieve Savannah’s purse. John is instantly infatuated by Savannah and falls in love at first sight.

In contrast to Dear John I later watched ‘The Proposal.’ A romantic comedy about Margret Tate, a work driven publishing editor, and her enslaved assistant Andrew Paxton. Initially the pair loath each other, but gradually over the course of the film they end up falling for each other, and by the end they are madly in love. A huge contrast to ‘Dear John’ where the characters fall instantly in love!

Is reality like the movies, and love really is at first sight? Or do you need to know a person for a certain length of time before you can grow to love them? Over the following weeks I hope to find out.