Help with my definition essay please!

I particularly need help with my introduction and closing..In my intro I am introducing the two types of love, but also want to tie in where can love be found. In the last paragraph I wanted to talk about that where component and really wanted to include the quotes that I have. I know it doesn't tie in with my intro and I am unsure how to work it. I am also unsure how to conclude the essay. Any help is greatly appreciated!!

LOVE ACTUALLY IS

What is love? It is hard to define love because it means many different things to many different people. Love can be defined as a strong emotion of affection felt between people and/or animals. To better understand love, it can be categorized into two major types, nonromantic and romantic love.

We encounter nonromantic love probably every day of our lives. It is a very important aspect of our life and aids in our general well-being. Nonromantic love simply can be defined as a love you feel for something or someone that doesn’t include romantic involvement. There are several types of nonromantic love including friendship love, family love, pet love and object love.

Friendship love is a very special type of nonromantic love. Friendship love happens when we feel love for a person that we feel very close to in our lives. We depend on friends in our everyday lives to be there for us. This kind of love is often searched for and somewhat easily obtained. We find our friends are the people who we went to school with and grew up together with. We also find friends who share common activities with us like clubs or sports. We also develop our friends from the people we work with every day. There are many characteristics that describe friendship including loyalty, trust, understanding and honesty just to name a few. When you have those characteristics in your friends, most times you will find you have friendship love.

The love you have for your family is another aspect of nonromantic love. Family love is the love you have for people who you are related to. These people can include, but are not limited to your mother, father, siblings, sons, daughters, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. This type of love is not hard to find and can include that love at first sight. An amazing example of this type of love would include a newborn baby looking into his or her mother’s eyes for the first time. They are both struck with love at first sight. Characteristics of family love are unconditional and supportive. Family love is a very important factor that aids in our overall well-being.

Pet love is what we feel when we love the animals we have adopted into our homes. Not everyone feels this type of love as not everyone has pets during their lifetime. Pets can be a very important part of someone’s life. Pets are always there for their owners no matter what and love them unconditionally. Sometimes, a pet is all a person has left and that is why pets can be very crucial to a person’s general well-being.

The last type of nonromantic love is object love. We all have things in our lives that we love whether it is a certain sport, food, activity, or material object. For me personally, I love scrapbooking, watching baseball and eating pizza. These things often make us feel good which makes them good targets for our love. Object love can be very fickle. What we love today is not always what we will love tomorrow.

The second major type of love is romantic love. According to Michael Grayson Conner, Psy. D, “[r]omantic love is a deep emotional, sexual and spiritual recognition and regard for the value of another person and relationship.” Romantic love is often yearned and searched for. Romantic love can involve your husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend or simply someone you just have a crush on. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a crush as “an intense and usually passing infatuation.” Components of romantic love include lust, intimacy, kissing, compatibility, trust, understand to just name a few. Romantic love usually takes years to develop completely and is something humans can search for their entire lives. It is a goal of human nature to find that one person who you are compatible with and spend the rest of your life with.

Both nonromantic and romantic love can be found everywhere. One of my favorite movies said it best. In the movie Love Actually, Hugh Grant’s character is talking about how he likes to think of airports when he is feeling down. He goes on to say, “General opinions starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends.” A great example he gives is, “When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion, love actually is all around.” Whether you are looking for love or not, it may be found anytime, anywhere and with anyone.