Modern dating is complicated. It can be everything and nothing all at the same time.
Does a great love really exist out here in the real world, away from the silver screen or the pages of romantic fiction?
We are born into a world of fairytales. Most of us know the story of Prince Charming and Snow White before we even learn to walk.
We hear about how he only had to see her sleeping in her glass casket to fall in love with her forever.
Fairytales do not teach us about love: they just give us an unrealistic picture of what love should be.
But we never find out about the “happily-ever-after.”
Nevertheless, we women still eat it up on the big screen because we crave the grand romantic gestures.
The fact that such clichés are worthless is irrelevant to the fantasy we women have in our minds.
If only dating these days was as simple and romantic as it was in, say, the ’80s.
You meet a nice person, they ask you out, they pick you up in their Mustang, and if you ever get in a fight, they stand outside your bedroom window playing Peter Gabriel’s hit song, In your eyes, on a boom box.
Nowadays, we women must navigate the complicated worlds of social media, smart phones, and tinder. In all honesty, it’s a war zone out there.
Personally, Tinder ain’t my cup of tea and I wouldn’t advise anyone to look for love in such a smartphone wasteland.
Feel free to swipe left, swipe right, blind date, fall in love, or whatever makes you happy.
Just know, nine times out of 10, it is not the fairytale you may be seeking, and modern dating is not for the faint of heart, nor the girls who expect to find their Prince Charming.
Deep down, we just want a real, genuine love story that resembles a fairytale or an ’80s rom-com in a more realistic sense.
Something that isn’t just “Well, Mommy and Daddy both swiped right; Daddy said, ‘What’s up?’ and that was that.”
Now look, I’m not saying that I want to be swept off my feet in a whirlwind romance, I think I’ve made my skepticism on that sentiment pretty clear.
Too often we women allow ourselves to be swept off our feet, only to be dropped on our head.
But what I do want is a relationship that is built on a foundation of values like trust, honesty, integrity, mutual respect and maybe a boom box pre-programmed with cheesy ballads from the good ol’ days on hand for emergency purposes.
Until I can find that, I’ll just have to keep in mind that in today’s twisted world, I have to kiss a lot of toads with no hope for a prince – that’s just the way it goes.
