The Fairy Tale Question

So, I’ve been watching Grey’s Anatomy. I just finished the unbelievably short 1st season, and I love it. So many episodes left me in tears at some point, if not several times during the same episode. I love the show. Seriously.

So, I was watching one of the episodes in the First Season, called ‘Save Me‘. The beginning in particular got me thinking.

You know how when you were a little kid and you believed in fairy tales? That fantasy of what your life will be.
White dress. Prince Charming would carry you away to a castle on a hill. You’d lie in bed at night, close your eyes, and you had complete and utter faith.
Santa Clause. The tooth fairy. Prince Charming. They were so close you could taste them.

But eventually you grow up. One day, you open your eyes and the fairy tale disappears. Most people turn to the things, and people, they can trust.

But the thing is? It’s hard to let go of that fairy tale entirely. ‘Cause almost everyone has that smallest bit of hope, of faith, that one day they’ll open their eyes and it will all come true.

I don’t remember a lot from my childhood. I don’t remember every being terribly into princesses. My favorite Disney Princess was Ariel, because she didn’t look or act like a princess; of all the Disney princesses, she was the least princess-like. And I adored her.

I hated the stories of the princess getting rescued, I rejected, for the most part, the ideas that said a girl couldn’t make it on her own. That she might need a man to do her ‘dirty work’ so to speak. Which is why Ariel was my favorite. She went on her own adventures, dreamed her own dreams, figured things out for herself, rejected the life that was being pressed upon her.

So, suffice it to say, I’ve never concerned myself with fairy tales. Not the cartoon kind at least.

But the romantic-comedy/Hollywood fairy tale? Totally caught my heart up in hope. Meaning, I saw the sweet, sensitive, romantic, handsome guy that jumped through 1,000 hoops for his soul-mate. I would dream of me meeting him, what he would be like, how we would live our lives.

And then, my heart was stomped on a few times, and I started to doubt the reality of ‘Mr. Perfect’. We become jaded, cynical. We become convinced that love like that, perfection like that doesn’t exist.

Then, I met Bf. He was gorgeous, funny, intelligent, amazing, and just simply took my breath.

Life? Is not a fairy tale. But sometimes it can be so damn close. The Fairy Tales leave out the cleaning you have to do, and the fights you get into. The fairy tales don’t mention the struggles you have, and the unpleasant parts of life. Fairy tales never mention how the princess has to pay off her debt, or when she wakes up with ratty hair, and has morning breath.

Fairy Tales might leave out the less beautiful parts of Real Life, but they also leave out the most important parts. They might leave out how Prince Charming and Princess get in a fight, but they also leave out the making up that can be done afterwards.
They might leave out Princess’s morning breath and bed-head, but they also leave out how Prince Charming still kisses her anyway, and tells her how beautiful she is.
They might not tell you how everything isn’t always easy, but they also forget how wonderful it feels to walk through a struggle with the person you love and come out on the other side, stronger and more in love.

This is the fairy tale I’ve come to love. This is the life that I wake up every day wondering how I got so lucky. Ariel can have her perfect underwater life, I’m still fighting my own fights, figuring out things for myself, rejecting any preconceived life that might be pressed upon me.

I’m no princess, but I am my own queen. I have faith in myself, no longer in fairy tales. I opened my eyes, and my own fairy tale did come true. I made my own, and I have my own Prince Charming.

He’s not perfect. Prince Charming was never cranky, and never farted. Prince Charming always said the right thing, and B? Not so much. But I don’t care. It’s my fairy tale, and though he’s not perfect, even imperfection sparkles when the life hits it right.
Those princesses didn’t get to experience what it’s like to have Prince Charming take care of her when she’s sick, bring her the fan that she has to have on when she sleeps without even being asked, so that she doesn’t have to.

Fairy tales are good to dream about, but I think real life is so much better, so much more full, so much greater than could ever be portrayed in fiction.
Because life is what you make it, and it is my job to make my own fairy tale. So far? I’m pretty happy with what I’ve come up with. And it can only get better from here.

Here’s to remembering that, here’s to the exquisite sparkle of Real Life, here’s to making your own fairy tale.
Here’s to a love that is beyond words, beyond dreaming, and beyond Fairy Tales.