A hopeless romantic

What does it mean to be a romantic?  What is it like to be one?  Is it healthy or wise to be in love with love?  
I think that being a romantic consists of appreciating each day, stopping to smell the roses so to say.  Its about finding the beauty in life, appreciating how mysterious the universe is from the creation of a star and its solar system down to watching a leaf float on the air as it falls from its branch.  
What would you do for love?
People do lots of crazy things for love. The two extremes seem to be self destruction and the other (which I prefer) is self realization.  
Self Realization you ask...
What I mean by that is the possibility of finding your purpose in life, raison d'etre.  I think that too many people feel that their job is supposed to be their calling in life.  I propose a different idea of a life calling.  I realized that what I want is a family of my own. I want to be a husband and a father.  (Not immediately mind you) In due time of course.  But I realized that there are few things more beautiful than life, than being responsible for another person.  It seems that most people today being responsible for another being is horribly terrifying to them.  I guess I just want to be apart of something more than just myself. Not because I feel alone in the universe.  I just think that loving someone else more than yourself is the only real way to be happy.