Sniper Team 4 said:
Sounds like your relationship is over if that's how you view it.
You want a science reason? Love. As defined by a certain penguin in a TV show: "Love. A chemical reaction in the brain. Highly addictive." People get addicted to the feeling of being in love--the happiness, the joy, all those other emotions--and it's just like smoking. You can't quit it and people will struggle to keep it.
People also seek validation for their existence. For many people, having someone say, "I love you," makes them feel like they are not worthless. That someone cares about them--even if that same person treats them like crap, beats them, and has less respect for them than they do for themselves.
But those are rather depressing reasons, aren't they? Here's why I want a relationship:
I was in one once. I liked the idea of someone thinking that I meant something to them. Something different than what my brother feels for me, or my parents, or my friends. I liked that she would call me at work just to surprise me. I liked that, on Valentine's Day, she sent me a bunch of balloons because I had told her once that I had never received anything like that on Valentine's Day. I liked that she listened to me, and that I could tell her ANYTHING and she wouldn't care. Things that you don't feel comfortable talking to your friends or family about. I liked when she'd tell me a story about something she saw that reminded her of me. I liked walking, with no place to go, just holding her hand while we walked. I liked making her smile, making her laugh, and taking her mind off of things that made her sad. And when I couldn't do that, I liked being their and just listening to her vent, or hold her while she cried. I liked when she snuggled up under my arm while we watched a movie, and that she giggled when she could hear my heart pounding from the battle scenes in Lord of the Rings. I liked going to sleep knowing that someone cared about me that deeply.
I liked that I was special to someone.
Those are my reasons for being in a relationship. Sadly, I'm no longer in one, but those are the things that made the whole thing worth while. Sappy I know, but it's all true.
I agree with this or at least along these lines, but I want to go a bit further and maybe off in my own tangent based on personal experience and being alive.
For another human being, existing (as far as we can tell) with us in reality, to not only acknowledge your existence but also consider their own augmented or bettered in some way simply due to the fact that you also exist, is a big chunk of it. Your 'being', your personality, your quirks, your appearance, nearly everything about you (save for small grievances/annoyances) appeals to someone else. Another being. Your existence is
inherently meaningful to
another being.
Furthermore, and this may get a little gross, but to address the physical nature of an intimate, romantic relationship: that person is not only willing, but desires you physically. Your physical presence is necessary and craved. That person is also willing to copulate with you, which is both a deep display of trust and desire. They are willing and want to swap fluids with you. When you embrace to kiss, they press their lips against yours, their tongue pushes past yours as if to taste and savour prior to devouring you. To be craved like that, even in the throes of lust, by another human being would be stupendous, especially if it's someone to whom you're also attracted.
And that's a bit more on the extreme end of the spectrum. Just to be with someone who isn't so physically repulsed by you, but is
attracted to you would be incredible. Someone who wants you to hug them and hold them, or just touch them for fuck's sake.
Someone who smiles and beams when they see you, simply because you
are.
There's plenty more shit I could cite and expand on, but it's already tl;dr-ey. If it isn't obvious, I haven't ever been in a relationship. Tried a bunch in High School, gave up because it was bullshit and a waste of time. I didn't like the idea of depending solely on another person for happiness. However, at this stage, companionship would be a boost.
To those who cite friends as an acceptable form of "companionship", I suppose that works for you. Personally, I have one
true friend, and they live quite a ways a way at the moment.
Everyone else I spend time with I do so mostly because they're closer in proximity. I really can't relate to a lot of them at all: many are married, more are in long-term relationships, a couple have such a narrow-minded view of the world (and generally a closed mind on most subjects) and live in such a small, condensed bubble that it's hard for me to have any real discussions with them that actually progress and go anywhere. Small talk and bullshit is fine around complete strangers, but shouldn't even exist between friends. One thing I can't discuss with these people is music. Easily the most important thing to me, there's just no connection there and I can't talk in-depth about it. So a lot of these people I see as "acquaintances" or "peers" rather than friends because they're just there and I passively know them. They can't hold a candle to the level of companionship described in the paragraphs above.