Finding love in 2019 is like playing Snakes and Ladders. You can have ups and downs, all in the same game. You think you’ve moved forward 10 spaces, but really you’ve gone back 2. You go through all kinds of ups and downs, just like the game pieces.
Our society’s obsession with temporary happiness is about to rewrite the classic love stories. I no longer feel that deep, true love—the kind that comes from the heart—the way I used to when I was younger. After my breakup, I was against this whole dating mindset, but I got swept up in the trend. I took the plunge and gave it a try. I tasted excessive happiness—the thrill of feeling alive because I had no ties. Of doing whatever I wanted with whoever I wanted, whenever I wanted. After several years in a relationship, I craved freedom. I wanted to live without pain, without sorrow, without obligations—just to live at a hundred miles an hour, like the millennials.
And then I met you—the guy who was standing against the wall I ran into. I got attached, and you, not so much. I realized, right then, that I was still that little girl in love. I became, once again, the girl with so much affection to give that if love could end poverty, the Earth would be a treasure trove. And the two of us—it wasn’t a fairy tale. You made me feel emotions that weren’t always pleasant. Like the ones drawn on the little face of the pouting figure on the daycare wall. I clung to you like a spider to its web. A spider that, even caught in a storm, stays clinging to that little thread it spun. And that’s when I realized I’d gotten a taste of my own medicine. You were still in the “maybe I’ll find something better” mindset. And I was ready for something serious.
So I wished you the best of luck in your world of social media and online dating… you know, that fake world. And today, I’m hurting, because every time I push you away, you come back just as I was starting to smile. You come back, but you’re still that cold person who’ll never dive into my ocean of love.
So this story ends as the tale of two people who were stuck in dating traffic and met at a red light. One of them decided to open their heart, and the other didn’t. Time flies; the light is green now. You keep going down Dating Boulevard, and I’m turning right.