She may still haven’t fully stepped out of the shadows of her showbiz royalty mom and esteemed actress Sylvia Sanchez, as well as off her talented older siblings Arjo and Ria Atayde, but Gela Atayde has surely started carving out her own path in the industry as a promising actress, dancer, and host.

Aside from impressing us with her acting skills in Kapamilya teleseryes “Senior High” and “High Street,” her dancing prowess in “ASAP,” and hosting chops in “Time To Dance,” Gela has also delighted us with the eloquence and wisdom that she exhibited in every interview, such as in this exclusive video, wherein she was quizzed regarding her personal definition of love, her prior misconceptions of it, and the unexpected lessons she learned about it.

According to Gela, love for her before was “something that is so perfect.” When she was still a kid, she thought that love meant condoning certain actions even though they are wrong. But growing up, she realized that the true meaning of love is being able to unhesitatingly tell a certain person or other people that they are wrong. It is being able to express your opinions and feelings about something that they’ve done to you and still feeling loved by them.

Furthermore, she also used to believe as a kid that it was okay for her to just keep on giving love without being reciprocated since she was more of a giver than a receiver before. However, she learned that it should never be one-sided and that we must give love to ourselves first before being able to pour onto others. We have to feel the love from them, and it shouldn’t be all about giving and giving but also receiving. 

With regard to her misconception of love before, she admitted that she used to think of it as simply accepting whatever anyone throws at you, which she eventually realized is actually wrong. As she matures, she has learned that the true essence of love is being able to call out our loved ones whenever they do something wrong, which can help them grow and improve themselves. At the same time, we must be open to them expressing their sentiments and feelings about us. 

And lastly, when it comes to the unexpected love lessons she gained, Gela stated, “It’s not bad to ask for what you need in love.” She believes that if someone loves you, they would do anything and everything to make you feel it without you having to ask. But she also reminded us that our loved ones might also need to be told sometimes since not everybody can easily guess or figure out for themselves what we like. 

She remarked, “Love has to be reciprocated. Hindi pwedeng one-sided. Hindi pwedeng bigay lang nang bigay.” Then she added, “It doesn’t have to be hard. Love doesn’t always have to be hard.”