not this site's normal topic

I was trying to explain, one day, how I feel cheated by the story that modern America - and every adult around me - told me growing up. It was the basic story: boy meets girl, boy asks girl out, boy and girl get married.

It wasn't until this year that I realized the crucial missing pieces. First of all, how do things get from meeting to asking out? And second, how do things get from asking out to marrying? The myth skips over them. I don't even know those pieces in my parents' story.

"So what will you tell your kids some day when you have them?" my friend asked.

I said, "I will tell them that some people find someone to love and some people don't. I will tell them that things will be okay and they can be happy, either way."

Then I thought for a while and I added, "I will also tell them that it's worth loving people. Sometimes you love someone more than they love you. Sometimes the other person loves you more than you love them, and you can't force yourself to love them more. The only thing you can do is be honest and gentle with them. And maybe they won't be honest and gentle with you, so you have to be honest and gentle with yourself. And sometimes that requires the eating of lots of bonbons."