The major value of spontaneity and vulnerability has been lost in the ease of meeting online because, in online dating, the cycle of first dates (and perhaps a handful of seconds or thirds) is inevitable.
You can go months, years even, of being stuck in that emotional swamp — not sinking or swimming — of sharing hours, days, weeks, with someone now and again without every fully giving yourself to a relationship. It’s easier not to.
Because the thing is, you only get this one exquisite life to do, feel, learn, explore, be, try everything.
I’m not saying there aren’t right answers and reasons, but getting married to meet some sort of traditional expectation, because you’ve been dating long enough, because you’re at a certain age, because your family expects it, because all your friends are already married, aren’t good enough reasons to marry someone and have it be more than some skeletal shell of a stage you’re supposed to reach.
Though FOMO (fear of missing out) is obnoxious at best, there’s something to the idea that we all — in this human experience — have a deep-seeded need to be a part of something that lasts.
Too often the fashion and beauty worlds are criticized as the culprit for dictating what is beautiful and, though perhaps unintentionally at times, what is not beautiful.
I fell in love with him without my consent, piece by piece, until the fact that I loved him was just a matter of undeniable facts.
But maybe Disney did get something right: patience… and the importance of at least one pair of extra kick-ass shoes to make the waiting worthwhile.