So this week I heard some buzz on Twitter about an interview with Nicholas Sparks. Author of 16 novels, of which 9 have been or are being made into movies, he could be considered an expert on love stories. Here is the article: http://www.usaweekend.com/article/20120406/ENTERTAINMENT06/304060011/Love-story-lessons-from-Nicholas-Sparks?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage
What caused sparks(haha that's punny!) is this comment from the interview, “Age informs dilemma. If you’re going to write a novel about everlasting love, the characters can’t be teenagers,” Sparks says.
Well, considering that many of Nicholas Sparks novels do indeed deal with teenagers and love, this might seem like it's a hypocritical comment. Here's a few example of his novels that deal with teenagers in love.
The Last Song: The story of Ronnie and Will. Both teenagers in the summer between high school graduation and their first year of college.
A Walk To Remember: The story of Jamie and Landon, 17 year old kids in high school.
The Notebook: The story of Noah and Allie. The book covers their first summer together, when they were teenagers.
So 3 out of his 16 novels deal with teenage love. It does seem weird that an author who has written 3 novels dealing with teenagers and love would say that teenagers don't fit everlasting love stories. Well I'm gonna play Devil's advocate here and show both sides of this.
Pro Teenage Everlasting Love Stories
Who says teenage love can't last? Many people fall in love as in high school and their early college years and go on to get married. Many stay married, others divorce. But still teenagers fall in love and can stay in love for a long time. Teenagers tend to be less damaged towards the ideas of love, they want that happiness. They may still see it through rose-colored glasses, but that's wonderful. Early love is one of the most beautiful and purest things. Think of grandparents and great-grandparents who fell in love young and stayed together. That's everlasting love right there. These are some of the greatest love stories because of how long they've been together and everything they've gone through together. Now let's here the other side of the argument.
Against Teenage Everlasting Love Stories
A lot of people say teenage love can't last. Anyone listened to some parents talking to their teenagers recently about their current boyfriends or girlfriends. Those parents would obviously say that teenage love doesn't last. In most cases, they probably are right. What can a teenager in their early relationships really know about love? They have very limited experiences, in life and love. It takes years for teenagers to grow fully into their adult identities and figure out how they feel about relationships and what they want out of it.A teenage relationship might look like it'll last but things happen all the time between the start and finish line.
My opinion on this matter is this: Both sides have good points, but neither is better than another. As a young adult writer and a teenager in love, I do think young love is strong. It can last, but like anything else it takes hard work. I don't really think that everlasting love is reserved for the early 20 crowd or the after college crowd or heck, even the 30s crowd. Love can be found at 16 and a 99. And everlasting love doesn't have a real time measurement either. It could be a few weeks or years. Love can last longer than you think. I leave you with a quote that fit this well.
"True love doesn't have happy ending because true love doesn't end..."
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