Love

The Millennial Fairytale

I’m going to let you in on a little secret: I hate coffee dates. There, I said it. I’m a twenty one year old woman living in the year 2017 and I can’t stand coffee dates. I grew up reading fairy tales and watching The Princess Diaries, thinking that true love is out there and that Prince Charming is only a few heartbeats away. I dreamed of being rescued from a tower and riding off into the sunset with my one true love, and honestly I still do. But as I got older I came to realize what a boring and hateful world we live in. What has happened to our sense of romance? Where’s the creativity? The adventure and spontaneity? As a little girl I dreamed of being swept off my feet by a handsome stranger and knowing right away that he was the one. I did not dream of being stuck in awkward conversation at a coffee shop with someone who also swiped right.

Maybe I’m naive for trusting in fairytales, but is this really all there is to romance? Starbucks and Tinder? Does the firework-inducing foot-popping kind of love even exist? Am I the only one who really wants more? Does anyone else crave the whimsy of falling in love, the passion found in the unexpected? I want to dance in thunderstorms and swim in the moonlight. To laugh and cry with the one I love. To grow old with the one who loves me too. I wish for teasing glances and nights spent under the stars. For heated arguments and whispered apologies. For a fated love written in the stars. Am I the only only one who wishes for such things? Am I alone in dreaming of long car rides and fierce hugs goodbye? For surprised hellos and secrets only we know? For midnight cuddles and stolen kisses? Is it a crime to want a different kind of love? In a world where everything’s a carbon copy of something else, is it such a bad thing to wish for a fairytale?

Love always,

Ali Nash