True love is like ghosts, which everybody talks about and few have seen.

The thing is constantly discussed and rarely encountered, and the talk makes it harder to recognise in person. What most people describe is the early rush, vivid and short, while the thing itself is quieter and mostly years of ordinary attention. Held against the stories, a real and serviceable love can look like a disappointment. Held against what is actually available, it is a great deal.

Look at what you have rather than at what is described. Ask whether someone is still interested in your day, still on your side in a room, still there after a bad year, and weigh that above the feeling you were told to expect.