Do you think I really love him?

I’m on a bit of a journey of self discovery, trying to find out why I do the things I do, I’m trying to figure out who I am, on my own and who I want to be. Out of boredom I thought I would type in dating into this website, after all even if you shouldn’t rely solely on the internet for advice, but this place helped me find a lot about myself, in a round about way. As I was saying before I stated to ramble, I typed in dating and one of the first one is how can I get my parents to let me date? These types of questions are always interesting to read. The first reply was along the lines of “some one as young as you only goes out with guys to say they have a boyfriend”. This is true for most of my friends this age, there are three or four who do it for the actual reasons, of finding love from some one who truly understands. What differs me from the more typical crowd? My home life is ruff, my parents always fighting, at each other then blaming me for there relationship issues. Just the other night I got decked in the face, I would rather not say why. But what I’m truly asking is, why do people young people want to date? Is it because they don’t feel like there getting the love they need from home, or is it because they want to be able to say they have a boyfriend. Or could it actually be that they just truly want to meet an interesting person and develop an interesting relationship.

The reason why I ask is I’m going out with some one I find special, but I’m wondering if I really love him or if I just like saying “I have a boyfriend”. Now of course I don’t expect you to answer that question I must find out for myself whether or not I love him. I just need to hear a second opinion on the above question. Thanks for taking the time to read this.