Prologue
The thing about fairy tales is that most people expect a happy ending. Cinderella ends up with her Prince Charming, Snow White is woken up from her endless sleep with the kiss from her prince, Belle’s Beast turns into a handsome prince, Ariel from the Little Mermaid ends up with her prince.
What people never really focus on is all of the things the characters have to go through to get their happy ending. Cinderella is forced to be a slave to her stepmother and stepsisters, Snow White is cursed by an evil queen, Belle has to leave her family and live alone in a castle with a beast, Ariel loses her voice and ability to sing or speak.
Do you see the pattern here? You basically have to go through a lot of crap before you can have your happy ending.
So, why do we do it? Why do we put ourselves through the trouble and heartache in that quest for a fairy tale ending?
Some don’t, sad souls. They drift through life, closing themselves off, living a half-life but telling themselves that it’s enough to come home every day to an empty house, no bright future in site. So, they stop looking. Others take another path, always searching, always looking, but never really noticing the good when it’s right in front of them.
Then, there are those who do end up with the happy ending. Some are lucky enough to have help – their own fairy godmother, you might say – and some end up figuring it out on their own.
But, once you find what you are looking for – like that first bloom of love when everything feels all bright and new and shiny -- it is sort of easy to forget everything you had to go through in your life to get there. All of the doubt, searching, wondering. All of it. All people see is that happy ending.
I’m here today to remind you that it’s real, people. The good and the bad. Not to say that I wouldn’t do it all again. It’s just when I looked into the future and saw a happy ending, I didn’t exactly expect what all I’d have to go through to get there. Then again, not everyone’s happy ending would turn out like mine.
