...& they lived happily ever after...

Hello, strangers.

So, I must admit.. I watch a lot of romantic comedies. What can I say.. I'm a chick flick kind of girl. I love the always guaranteed happily-ever-afters.

However, while gobbling down popcorn and sno-caps during the last chick flick I watched, I came to a sad but very true realization... Romantic comedies give girls unrealistic ideas of what love is and what a relationship is supposed to be like.

Most romantic comedies follow the same story line:

Girl meets boy.
Girl and boy fall in love.
Girl and boy have a big fight that tears them apart.
Girl and boy separate for a predetermined length of time... sometimes months.. sometimes years.. They may even have other relationships and "fall in love" with other people in this period of time.
Girl and boy randomly run in to each other at a seemingly normal place.
Girl and boy realize that they've only ever loved each other.
Girl and boy live happily ever after...
The end.

That's how it goes in romantic comedies. That's how it goes in most love stories we hear growing up. But realistically, how many people break up and then get back together just to live happily ever after? I would bet not many. It also makes me think that this is the reason that many relationships fail. Girls have this expectation of an exciting and unpredictable relationship. Then they don't get it and become bored... I think in real life, your partner and your relationship become predictable. That's not a bad thing... you just get to know that person better.. and instead of viewing this quality as a positive, we see it as a negative because these love stories tell us that love is not supposed to be predictable. Predictable = Boring in the world of romantic comedies. I mean, really... who would watch a movie if the couple didn't break up just to make up later in the movie? Would you want to watch a couple just have minor fights over who didn't put the cap back on the toothpaste, then go on to live a normally happy, content life? Probably not.

But I think that until we (girls) realize that our relationships aren't going to be as exciting as the movies, we'll always have these unrealistic expectations of love... but remember girls, in the movies, you're guaranteed a happily ever after; in real life, you're not.