Believe It Or Not, Fairy Tales Are Changing My Life

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“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” — Neil Gaiman

To live in the real world is to accept that happy endings are not created suddenly. But they exist. No great thing happens spontaneously — fairy tales are no exception.

When Alice jump fell was pushed down the rabbit hole, she realized that her fantasy world was no walk in the park. Wonderland stretched her limitations and challenged her state of mind, but when she jump fell was pushed down the rabbit hole, she found herself. If all it takes to find your identity is a few tea parties and the help of a whimsical wanderer gone mad, you have to be nearly there.

Something as simple as an apple destroyed Snow White, but the world was not rid of her yet. Her fairness and potential for a new and just land was recognized by the right people and so she lived again. She took her misjudgments and grief and desperation for change and turned it into a token of remembrance and survival. Snow White has her trust as Cinderella has her desire as Ariel has her voice. Things once thought of as their best qualities were proven to be their downfalls, but that’s what makes their stories real.

Sometimes it’s too painful to live in this world where you don’t know what you want or who you are and you’re constantly betrayed because you have too much trust that people will always be true and fair. Sometimes it’s too painful for you to think about how not every person gets to have a happy ending and how good will not always win and sometimes having too big of an imagination is a bad thing. This doesn’t happen in fairytales.

Says the non-believer.

Fairy tales are raw and fairy tales are real. A poisoned apple is as real as divorcing parents as crippling body image as failing an exam. Just because there’s nothing as glamorous as True Love’s Kiss to awaken you from your mess of a life doesn’t mean you can’t have a happy ending. Prince Charming won’t wake you up from your nap that caused you to miss work and your fairy Godmother won’t give you a pair of magical slippers to sneak out past your curfew.

Life is long and sad and challenging and unfair but life is real. You are here and you are living. Belle saved her kingdom by sacrificing her sense of comfort in order to go on an adventure she’d remember for many years. Sometimes when life is too painful, you need to give up your limitations and comfort in order to obtain some happiness.

What separates the “real world” from fairy tales is that this world lacks hope — hope and belief that magic is truly and completely out there. Too many people refuse to believe in others and believe in themselves — just look at Tinkerbell and then try saying that something is impossible. Magic goes a long way when you have hope and choose to believe.

Remember one thing — fairy tales are real. Even with the monsters and evil queens and fairies and pirates and immortality — the stories are real. Forget everything you think you know and remember this.