Remember all those stories we read as children (and that we read to our own kids now), that tells you the prince and the commoner or the prince and the princess lived happily ever after? Is that the truth or just a lie? Relationships don’t always end in happily ever after. To have happily ever after you have to work really hard at your relationships.
Happily ever after in any relationship does require hard work. Take for example in the fairy tales, Cinderella, who we felt sorry for because she was treated unfairly by her stepmother and stepsisters, got the prince; Snow White, at the reciprocal end of the Queen’s hatred, was eventually rescued by the handsome prince and we cheered. Every romantic movie we’ve seen and every romantic book we’ve read, all gives us this happily ever after ending.
We do love that! We love that the girl gets the guy! Who wants to read a book or watch a movie with a crappy ending anyway? But are they lying to us? Is that realistic for us to accept?
What does happen after ‘happily ever after’? Hard work, that’s what happens! Every relationship no matter how good it is will take the cooperation of two people. If only one person is doing the work in that relationship then it’s headed for disaster.
Relationships are all about give and take. A little bit of this and a lot of that; learning to let go of your fears and inhibitions; accepting each others faults, mess and excuses. Being there for your partner when the going gets rough, be it financially or emotionally.
I can’t tell you how much I dislike hearing when another famous couple calls it quits. Especially if said couple have only been together for less than a year, and if one of them is breaking up for the umpteenth time! It makes me wonder how they can treat each other and their love so disdainfully. Then I wonder what it was that made them break up. Did the other person not love them enough? Were they always fighting? Or they just couldn’t be bothered to give their all to this other person, to really make a commitment?
I really hope that what happens to them, and in their world (Hollywood), isn’t seen as the norm to young people in the real world. You don’t just run around with Sara, Beth and Naomi, and break up every other month. You stay with one person and you give that relationship a chance to work. You create your own ‘happily ever after’.
While you shouldn’t forget those fairy tales because without them you wouldn’t be able to have dreams and sometimes goals, like having a prince or a princess (and there’s nothing wrong with that); make sure that you don’t think that real life won’t have its ups and downs; it’s many challenges.
You will have to make your relationship work if you really want it to succeed and not give up as easily the way some of our famous citizens do.