I feel like love, marriage, and relationships are a huge theme in my life right now.
For everyone but me.
EVERYONE is getting married.
EVERYBODY!!!
Except Katrinah.
I feel like every single week another friend of mine is getting married or engaged.
A few weeks ago, four of my friends all got married on the SAME day.
To be honest, I'm jealous.
But why?
What reason do I have?
I don't even want to be married right now, I'm still a kid.
Its just that I see all these people in love and I'm like "me too!"
And I think maybe that has something with how we're conditioned to think.
I read Romeo and Juliet in 9th grade.
I remember wishing I had what they had.
I was jealous of Juliet.
All the girls in my class were.
She had Romeo, and he was good-looking, and she had a pretty dress.
And they ran away together and got married in the woods in the middle of the night.
AND THEN THEY DIED.
When we talk about love, we almost always mention Romeo and Juliet.
But that's dumb.
I don't want their relationship.
Their relationship sucked.
Romeo and Juliet didn't even KNOW EACH OTHER.
Twenty minutes ago, Romeo was into another girl.
That should have been Juliet's first red flag. Who wants to be Romeo's sloppy seconds?
Out of nowhere, he's at the girl's window telling her he's madly in love with her.
...creepy...
Some boy shows up at my window and tells me that I am "the sun"...
I would start throwing shoes at him and tell him to get off my property!
But she didn't. Jules just took her heart and placed it right in his hand.
And we all know how it ended.
With a bunch of sneaking around, and a few rash decisions, they both died.
Like, Dude- You're like SIXTEEN.
It's just crazy. We tell this story like its a fairytale.
It's in the title: the TRAGEDY of Romeo and Juliette.
But as little girls we want to be like Juliet.
dumb.
To be honest with you, I love Jules.
She's one of my favorite story characters.
I can criticize her decisions all day long, but I get it.
I can't say that there wasn't a point in my life where I would have made the same choices.
She was in love.
She was so lost in the romance that she lost all reason.
She followed Romeo anywhere because she thought they would get a happy ending.
But she didn't. And I feel like that's what happens to most of us.
We give in to these romantic delusions, and find ourselves getting hurt.
Why I say all this, is because I think we need to stop trying to be like Juliet.
We can be ourselves. Write our own stories.
If we can't be happy alone, we will never be happy in a relationship.
Plain and simple.
Romeo can't keep us from getting hurt.
I do want to get married one day.
But not if I can't be happy by myself.
friends: don't sit around waiting for your prince charming.
A man who rides around on a horse just looking for a wife, is not the hero you want.
Live your life.
Go out into the world and expeience things.
Take risks, make mistakes, have adventures.
And maybe while you're having an adventure, he'll be having one with you.
And maybe not. Maybe you will do amazing things on your own, and that is great.
But whatever you do, be yourself, love yourself.
Because you are smarter than you think.
You're stronger than you seem.
And Braver than you believe.
