The pages of books are filled with endless stories, ranging from fantasy, romance, and horror books. As the reader gets transported into their imagination, the words on paper become a world full of love, humor, and banter. The same goes for movies: the emotions and gestures one views in movies is considered the ‘standard’ for love. In reality, there won’t be a kiss in the rain, the delivery of 1,000 daisies to one’s doorstep, nor will a person who likes you learn French to help you pass a class just to talk to you.

One’s expectations for love come from books and movies. What we expect a guy to be like comes from the polite gentleman that one obsesses over in front of a screen. Being delusional gives people the false sense of hope and allows one to make assumptions about how they want to be loved and receive love. It lets people live in their own mind without the consequences, while living in one’s own thoughts is comforting. It is not always a good thing, if one does decide to get into a relationship. It won’t be like what they see on social media nor in movies, because what if the other person doesn’t have the same perspective on how they think a relationship is or should be. 

There is a word for these false expectations: Delusion. While delusion is a mental health condition, this word has been loosely tossed around and used as a metaphor for teenagers who make up scenarios in their head, about a situation that they want to happen, creating the term “delulu”. 

One can be delusional in love or in the workplace: one brings failure, the other holds success.

Being delusional not only refers to love but also in other aspects of one’s life such as; in the workforce. 

One can delulu themselves into thinking that they can achieve success and build a career at any age. People begin to call a person who has those visions for their future “crazy” and “delusional”, for thinking they can make that happen. 

For example Jeff Bezos, creator of Amazon. Bezos quit his job at an investment bank with the determination of opening a virtual bookstore, which he did out of his garage with a handful of employees. This is where Bezos began developing the software for the site, which he named Amazon.com. 

There is an interview with Bezos and Jay Leno, which included Leno teasing Bezos about Amazon not making much of a profit, noting how the company is losing more and more each year. Bezos responded by saying “We are investing in the future.” Bezos never let comments like that get into his mind of his vision. 

Now he’s making 1.37 billion a day. People saw him as crazy for thinking that his investment could go far, but his delusion took his hopes and dreams for the future way beyond what he imagined for himself while working out of his garage. 

Although being delusional is not always a good thing, it helps one think in a positive light about their future and what kind of relationship one deserves. So is being delulu a soulu? Now that depends on the situation you find yourself in.