I do, don't I?

[This was written for a friend who, when she got asked this question by her prince, realized that he was not what she wanted. It turned out, that she needed a princess instead]


When I was a child the textbooks to life told me that I would live a fairytale. A fairytale revolves around a prince and a princess who marry and ride off into the sunset to begin their new life together – as husband and wife – a life filled with promise, romance and above all else; love.

When I grew up the textbooks to life showed me that the fairytale was just that, a tale; revolving around a girl who in turn finds love with many young princes - and in the end… the end?

On standing at the altar about to commit your entire life, soul, and being to one person, you realize that the prince which stands before you is a choice, he is your best choice but not thee best choice. As we walk on the road of childhood, to teens, to adulthood we spend our lives looking for this fairytale prince. The one that sweeps us off our feet in a world filled with chaos, the type of prince that sees nothing but us when standing in a room filled with people, the type of prince that would fight against our worst nightmares so that we would never have to face them again, the type of prince; who, without a doubt, you would die for. A rare prince.

Notice how no one, when we were young, told us that on our journey of finding this prince we would bump into prince one and two and three and four and, and, and… With each prince that we are able to feel has saved us and who we feel we love deeply - we tend to leave a piece of us behind with each backward glance that shouts goodbye. We take the next step forward in hopes that the next prince will be The One. On travelling through my journey I have discovered that while the fairytale is right in some cases, it fails to mention the most important facts: 

One: The moment you allow your heart to be open and touched, love is an ever constant, undying feeling that buries itself into the deepest part of your heart that can either make you feel alive or kill you.

Two: No matter how much we convince ourselves that after all these prince's we will still find thee prince; we have experienced a different kind of love with each prince – not just the one that the fairytale told us about.

And three, once a bond is created between you and these prince's, there is nothing that will break it – even when, in some cases, we crave it to break in order for us to feel free.

When our mothers sat on the edge of our beds at night, and told us how Cinderella became a princess, never once did the thought enter our minds that, perhaps in some cases, some of us will always remain the Cinderella whose foot never had the chance to fit the glass slipper. That some of us, are just not that ‘lucky’. Going to the ball and meeting the prince was an option, dancing with the prince was a must, falling in love with the prince was unexpected and then the clock strikes 12 and you never get a chance to be with your prince again. Instead you see him from afar with a new princess. And like reality taught us to do, we pick ourselves up and find a new prince. You stand at the altar and gaze up at your prince and that’s when you realize – you do, don’t you?

The thought that we would live the rest of our happy lives with a prince was a definite reality each of us planned before the wedding bells were ringing, but the thought that the prince you have pledged your life to, is not really the person you want to be with, but rather someone who is a second choice, was never an option in your fairytale dream. If you can’t have the other, you will have to have the next – because each of us whose foot did not get that chance to fit into the glass slipper, still need to know that we are loved.

Love is defined as:

The only but often forgotten purpose of living.

Taking pleasure from the happiness of another.

Love is never having to say you're sorry.

Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.

Love is the happy side of needing.

Love is one of the four projections of the force of life.

And lastly,

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.

Walking down the aisle, you look up at the prince that is waiting with a smile on his face and when the time comes for you to say those two binding, loving words - Do you?