Have you ever taken the time to think about how the people and things you love have changed throughout the course of your life? If not, take a few minutes right now and think of a few examples. If you’re like me, what has stayed the same and what has changed may surprise you.

I’m 25 days away from taking the big “I do” plunge, so naturally, the topic of love is on my mind. Once I really started digging into how who and what I love has changed over the years, I realized there’s one fundamental lesson to be learned from all this reflecting (more on that in a bit). Former PR pro turned blogger extraordinaire Lauren Weber wrote a guest post about how love and what matters most in life can quickly change, but I wanted to revisit the topic and go a bit deeper.

It’s not easy to get naked and let people in who we may not know and trust, but for the sake of this post, I want to share a few examples of how what I love has changed and stayed the same during my meager 26 years on this earth.

Have you ever had an eerie feeling that someone was following or watching you? You whisk around quickly, or secretly peer through the curtains, but realize no one is there. You’re just being paranoid. You keep moving on with your life.

Sadly, stalking is a reality. Not just physical stalking…but also Internet stalking. Stalking is a terrifying crime that affects 3.4 million people in the U.S. annually.

This is a positive blog, and I’m not supposed to be talking about negative things, so why am I talking to you about stalking? If you don’t know Danny Brown (I have yet to meet him in person, but I’m sure he’s just as awesome IRL as he’s been through our online interactions), he created an amazing initiative called 12for12k – a social media led call-to-action with the goal of helping charities reach a wider audience through the power of social media.

Danny and his supporters have raised more than $100,000 so far, and currently, the focus is on supporting Jodi’s Voice. The purpose of the site is to provide an easy access point for information and links relating to Jodi’s Law and other stalking laws.

I’ve never cared for my last name. Even though it took until my late teenage years, I love and appreciate my very Italian and very unique first name (Nicolena, for those of you who only know me as Nikki). I always wished I had an awesome Italian last name to pair nicely with my first name. Not the case.

Stephan is not all that unconventional, but you wouldn’t believe how difficult it is for people to pronounce or spell. I’ve been Stephen, Stephens, Stefan…and everything in between. So you would think I’d be super excited to be less than three months away from snagging a new last name that is nearly impossible to misspell or mispronounce (MAL’s last name is Little).

It’s actually the opposite. All of a sudden, the thought of losing the last name I’ve had for nearly 27 years is terrifying. It’s like I’m giving up my identity. And with the social Web being such an integral part of my personal and professional life, my last name is also a huge part of my online identity. My last name is included on just about every online network or profile I’ve ever created. I’ve worked hard for the past five years to build a name for myself (or in other words, a personal brand, even though I still struggle with embracing that phrase). Now I’m steps away from giving up that name forever.

I know there are two simple solutions: Don’t take MAL’s name, or hyphenate my name. Hyphenating my name is not in the least bit appealing to me. So I’m left with the option of keeping my name as is.

This is a guest post by Lauren Weber.

We all do crazy things for love. People get tattoos expressing love. People go online and cross the oceans hoping to find a lifelong partner to love. People die for love.

While my story isn’t quite so dramatic, I will be the first to say that love has changed my life in so many ways. Here’s my story.

I went to college with a solid purpose: to earn a degree, which I would put to use one day. Halfway through my schooling, I decided to end my continuous string of boy drama and concentrate on something I never thought of: myself.

I decided I was going to move to Chicago after college to pursue my passion of public relations. I dreamed of loft living, relying solely on public transit and late nights dancing in the VIP section with my girlfriends.

Then something happened and snagged my plans: I fell in love. I tried to deny it at first. I told him that I had plans to move, so it was in his best interest to not get too close.

He didn’t get the picture, and after months of chasing me, I decided to give in and try dating him. Just weeks in, I knew I couldn’t live without him being part of my daily life. We vowed our hearts to each other in marriage three years later.

Chicago was then out of the picture. Growing up a farm boy, he couldn’t fathom the idea of leaving family behind and not having easy access to green spaces. I compromised. If we couldn’t do Chicago, I wanted to work in Detroit (and live in the ‘burbs to appease him). Fortunate for me, he followed after I landed a job.

We knew we didn’t want to wait long before starting a family…and a year and a half later, we found out we were going to be parents. It was one of the most amazing feelings ever.

When I saw our little girl for the first time, her life flashed before my eyes: I saw her first day of school, her walking across a stage and receiving a diploma and finally falling in love with someone just as I had.

The thought of missing a single moment of my little gal’s life filled me with tension, and nothing seemed to matter but being in her presence – reading to her, wiping away her tears and yes, even changing her messy diapers.

Despite having a career many would love, I gave it up. At first I shuttered at the thought of giving up on the college degree and career I had worked so hard for to just stay home. But as time went on, I began to see things differently. I thought what better way to put my college education to use than staying home while she’s young to teach her and help prepare her for her life ahead?

My career can wait. My baby and her life can’t.

So, fast-forward to now: We are on a tight budget. No big future vacations planned. We won’t be getting a new vehicle any time soon. And yet, I’ve never been so sure that this was the right decision.

I may be financially poorer now than ever, but I’m richer in love than I’ve ever been.

How has love changed your life?

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Lauren Weber is a former PR professional turned stay-at-home mom and freelance writer. When she’s not changing diapers or trying to get her daughter to say “ma-ma,” she’s keeping up with Detroit news and sharing things she finds interesting on Twitter. Follow along: @LaurenWeber84.

I had a meeting tonight with a friend I see about once a month. We met at her office, and I noticed a vase with these gorgeous red flowers with long stems. I commented that they were beautiful. My friend then told me that her husband brings flowers to her office every single Tuesday. I asked what was so special about Tuesday. She said it’s the first day of the week she’s in the office, and her husband always brings her flowers that will last her the entire week. He thinks it’s important that she has a beautiful vase full of flowers to brighten up her office every week.

Call it cheesy, corny or over the top, but I see it as devotion and love in their purest forms. Think about the small amount of time it takes my friend’s husband to go to the florist, buy flowers and drop them off at her office. An hour, tops. That small gesture brings rewards that last the entire work week.

Think about the things you can do for others that only take a fraction of time out of your day but will make a lasting impact. Then, do those acts of kindness and love whenever you can.

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I’ve been living vicariously through my many early-to-wed friends for the past three years. They were lucky to find real love in their early twenties (some started dating their now husbands/wives in high school) and decided there was no point in waiting to tie the knot. I’ve attended 10 weddings in the past few years, growing increasingly anxious for when it would be my turn. I’m one of those who grew up believing I would be married with kids by 25 (ambitious thinking, right?). Well, that didn’t happen, and frankly I’m A-OK with it.

I was lucky enough to have met the incredible MAL three years ago, and we’ve been together ever since. Our love story entered a new chapter last weekend when MAL proposed to me in Glen Arbor on the shore of Lake Michigan after hiking Sleeping Bear Dunes.

Sidenote: I HIGHLY recommend staying at the Sylvan Inn if you visit Glen Arbor. It’s a five out of five stars bed and breakfast.

I’d like to extend my deepest gratitude to the wildly-successful Pure Michigan marketing campaign for making me want to travel in-state, which resulted in the perfect opportunity for MAL to propose. Of course the proposal would have still been memorable if we were hiking in Denver or lounging on a beach at some tropical resort. But now we’re only four hours away from revisiting a city that will forever be “our special place”.

On to the wedding planning! We don’t have a date set yet, but we’ve already agreed on one thing: Our resounding love for Detroit means we want to have a Detroit-themed wedding with the reception (hopefully!) in the city. Luckily I have an amazing friend/event planner/bridesmaid/wedding planner to help me along the way.

Feel free to share any wedding tips/tricks or your engagement story in the comments!

Ernie Harwell, a Detroit legend who was the broadcaster at Detroit Tigers games for 42 seasons, passed away on May 5.

I didn’t grow up listening to Ernie’s voice on the radio as he gave the play-by-play at games. I don’t associate summers from my childhood with Ernie narrating the games like many baseball fans do. I have no recollections of ever watching a baseball game on TV or in person while Ernie was broadcasting it. All the knowledge I have about Ernie Harwell I gained through stories in the media and MAL, who was a huge fan (proven by the fact that the cat he found in an alley by Comerica Park is named Ernie). Ernie may not have directly impacted my life, but he definitely has indirectly, and I’m proud to say we shared the same hometown.

From what I’ve learned about Ernie, I know he was a gentle, friendly and humble man who loved life, his family and the great sport of baseball. He was so much more than the voice of the Tigers. His voice impacted and touched the lives of people in a very uncommon yet profound way for a sports broadcaster. Ernie gave people the sense of comfort and care, and many felt they knew him simply because they listened to him call the games year after year.

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I love reading Alan Baker’s Web World columns in the Crain’s Detroit daily e-newsletter because he provides a good mix of interesting insight and humor. I want to share Alan’s recent column about a local man who went out of his way to do something good. It’s very touching, and it’s one of those stories that tends to get overlooked all too often.

Alan had previously wrote about a monument that sits on a hill next to the Crain Communications building. A plaque on the side of the monument was totally covered in graffiti. He more recently wrote that he could no longer see the graffiti because the overgrown grass was hiding it, and he called out MDOT for lack of care. Some wise person at MDOT did a good job of listening to the convos going on about their company on the Web, and MDOT took care of the grass the same day Alan filed the story. However, the crew left a tree-like weed behind the monument.

Alan planned to write a column acknowledging the mowing (but still calling out the weed that remained) the next day, but somebody had removed the graffiti and weed. Alan had received an e-mail from Chris Peraino, property manager for Hospice of Michigan, saying the situation had been taken care of. Chris read Alan’s column and decided to take it upon himself to remove what the MDOT crew had left behind. This is a man with some serious motivation and love for Detroit! How many people do you know who would do something like that?

Check out Alan’s entire column here. It’s not every day that we read about people in our community as gracious as Chris, so he deserves major credit. We should all follow suit and take it upon ourselves to make a difference, rather than sitting back and waiting for someone else to.

Add The BG (Bowling Green) News to the list of pubs outside of Detroit that are finding a reason to sing our praises! This article credits Detroit as “perfect for a day trip or weekend adventure.” The article calls attention to places such as Midtown, the Majestic Theater’s Magic Stick, Corktown and Mexicantown.

It’s really refreshing to read articles like this one that combat all the negative publicity D-town has received in recent months (unfortunately for a variety of reasons that do not fall into the realm of this blog’s topics!). So a big high-five to The Bowling Green News for showing O-H-I-O (I’ve been succumbed to being a partial OSU fan, I’m sorry!) that Detroit really does stand out from the crowd — in a POSITIVE way!