18 Problems Only Hopelessly Romantic 20-Somethings Understand

1. The issue of most people not really being into commitment until ~30+.

2. Not realizing that people are not really into marriage or commitment until ~30+ and then being in a long-term relationship with someone and then being like, wait you don’t want to be together for all of eternity?

3. People ragging on movies like The Notebook which, in your opinion, are the pinnacle of cinematic portrayals of romance. Heteronormativity? The Bechdel test? Fuck that. This is what Oscars are made of.

4. You secretly imagine what your children would look like with a variety of attractive strangers you see throughout the day.

5. You have all these plans for the Pinteresty/movie-like things you’re going to do for your significant other… once you have one.

6. You have a Pinterest board that’s titled something along the lines of “Future Wedding” or “Someday” and you’re starting to become a bit uneasy that it won’t ever happen. Never the less, it gets about 100 new pins on it a day so hope really isn’t that lost.

7. You worry that people are secretly judging you for your “You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams” poster.

8. You are always saying “when I get married” or “at my wedding” or “I decided I’m going to name my child _____ when I have two girls and a boy” even though you are painfully single right now.

9. You wear your heart on your sleeve and have to deal with the consequence of having it get battered time and time again.

10. You get so frustrated with the fact that so many people have really lost all concepts of romance these days. You fantasize about these dimly lit nights out with your sweetheart and wonder why nobody else seems to desire the same.

11. You have to hide the fact that you cry at really emotional and romantic songs because you know people will get on your case for it.

12. You’re not entirely sure if being a hopeless romantic makes you more or less desirable to a partner… you’d like to think the former but hey, you never know with the #millennials.

13. Even your Netflix queue mocks you.

14. Some part of you always believes that the person you’re seeing is “the one” no matter how much denial you’re in or how much you know it won’t work out with them… you just like to believe that the wait and struggle is over.

15. You really don’t think you’ll have that many issues in your marriage or long-term commitment because you are equipped to talk things through and have open lines of communication and do whatever it takes to make things work. You’d compromise nearly anything.

16. You also still hold onto the idea that doing the above things will always solve issues in a relationship. You’re just not ready to let go of that little bit of emotional magic just yet.

17. You get truly worked up over fictional characters’ love lives (I mean, I’m still not over Arizona cheating on Callie I had to turn the TV off and walk away I don’t know about you).

18. You receive so many mixed messages from society, that you should hold out for your big, great love, but at the same time that you need to be honest and realistic and “love yourself” first and all that bullshit. So after you’ve had your heart torn up a few times, you want to retreat into seclusion and believe that they’re right that love isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. But you don’t. And you won’t ever. And if you ask me, that’s not hopeless, that’s brave, and it’s something you should take immense pride in.