Students experience substantial changes during their college years, which leaves many young people to find their beliefs and moral codes drastically altered. College is a time of growth and self-discovery; many students are on their own for the first time and have the chance to establish their own values that will stay with them to adulthood.

These beliefs often are based on many different things: family, religion and friends are just a few factors.

"I think the foundation of my beliefs on love definitely comes from seeing my parents and how successful their marriage is, and also just talking to them," said Ross Conner, sophomore in business. "I'm also influenced by things like youth group and the things I pick up through experience and talking."

Some people, like Conner, base their ideas on the way their parents love or do not love because these relationships are the first many children observe.

"I definitely learned the most about love from my mom," said Kelsey O'Hara, sophomore in electrical engineering. "I look up to her because she's realistic about it. She realizes the way things are in this day and age and the world we live in."

Something college students might struggle with is the transition from adolescent relationships to more mature adult ones.

Kelly Welch, certified family life educator and assistant professor of family studies, said most relationships begin as "fatuous" ones, or what is more commonly

referred to as "passionate love."

"When that attraction wanes, the relationship is typically replaced with another fatuous relationship," Welch said. "If it's the kind of love that will last, only time will tell. If the relationship survives the ‘gotta have him or her 24/7' phase, then it might have a chance. While fatuous love happens quickly, compassionate love grows gradually over time."

Young people can easily get caught up in intense and passionate relationships but find they do not last. Welch said when people get caught up in a "two-person world" and begin to ignore family, friends, sports and academics, it is a sign that the relationship is not real love.

So what is real love? And what role does sex play in that love?

"I think sex is a big part of love," O'Hara said. "If you don't have the same views about it, that can lead to a lot of animosity, and if you both feel unfulfilled, you may start to stray elsewhere."

However, others don't have sex because they love the person they are with and want to save that part of their relationship.

"Sex is definitely important in unity and expression of love ... in certain confines," Conner said. "It's easy to mistreat, and it's all about what is best for the other person."

One thing Conner, O'Hara and Welch agree on is that lust is very different from love. Lust, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is "intense or unbridled sexual desire," which is quite different from the "compassionate love" Welch said couples can eventually attain.

"Lust is for the self, but true love is for the other person," Conner said. "It's putting them before you. Love is being attracted to every part of someone — flaws and perfections — and accepting all of them."

Welch said the biggest relationship problem young people face is being unrealistic about what love really is. She said a large misconception is that the love couples experience will stay the same, whether that be for six months or five years. However, this is not the case.

"Love is a process," Welch said. "How we experience it changes over time. The biggest piece of relationship advice anyone could ever give to young couples is: Go into relationships with realistic expectations.

"The reality is, love changes. Communication changes. Sex changes. Intimacy changes."