What Is Love?

Is love 'sparks' on first meeting or is it something that grows and builds over time through friendship?  If you like someone is there the possibility of something more developing? Or is the relationship forever fated to remain in the friends zone? 

What about arranged marriages?  Are they all loveless barren desolate unions?  Cannot two people grow to love each other, does that make their love any less real or less valuable than love at first sight?  Is it love at first sight or is it just 'lust' at first sight?  How does one know if it is indeed love or just a figment of their overactive imagination?  

And what about unrequited love?  Is it not considered true love because only one party is involved, are their feelings any less real?

Relationships are hard work period.  Can 'sparks' alone get a couple through the trials and tribulations of marriage / partnership?

I don't know? I don't know whether there are any answers but what I do know is this, whenever I have rushed into a relationship it has ended badly.  Am I trying too hard?  What is trying too hard anyway?  Is longing to find a partner in life considered desperate?   Or is it just natural to want to find a mate?  

I could ask a number of people these questions and get a myriad of answers depending on their situation in life, are they old, young, single, married, male, female, what's their cultural background, their sexual preferences, their personality?  So I guess what this means is that there is only one person who can decide / choose what love is for me and that's me.  Maybe I should stop listening to what other people say it is because love is in fact different for everybody and what may work for someone else may not necessarily work for me nor make me happy?  Whenever I've felt 'sparks' I've just ended up being burned!