One of my friends lives in the Wonderful World of Disney. This wouldn’t be so disturbing if she under the age of twelve. Unfortunately, she’s twenty. She believes that everyone’s lives, including her own, adhere to Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty and gets incredibly upset when things don’t go this way. Waiting for prince charming to knock on my door and then being chained barefoot and pregnant to his kitchen sink for the next ten years isn’t my idea of a fairy tale. It’s a horror story.

            As children, we all grew up with the “happily ever after” genre. Most of us outgrow it as teenage angst and cynicism bloom. The pap we’re spoon fed as kids breeds unrealistic concepts of love, romance and life in general. There’s a general consensus that a successful life is to become rich and powerful, or if you’re female, to be swept off your feet by a rich man when you’re barely legal. The moral of many Disney stories also gives the impression that opportunity simply lands at your feet. Isn’t this system of false hope adding to teenage angst?

Let’s be realistic. There’s no way that prince charming will come and find you. A wad of cash isn’t going to land at your feet. Furthermore, the preachy “oh you’ll find the perfect person” attitude gets under your skin after a while. There’s no such thing. Relationships take a lot of work. The “perfect person” myth that we’re spoon fed from birth does nothing but create false hopes.