"Hopeless romantic."
We hear this two-word phrase tossed around a lot in our daily lives. Personally, I've embraced this label and I use it quite often to describe myself. I wear my heart on my sleeve and I let it bleed freely for just about anyone I pour my affections onto.
My thoughts can go absolutely wild with the romantic scenarios I imagine. Candlelit dinners, beachfront sunsets, laughs had over cups of coffee on a snowy evening, holding hands as we stroll along the city streets... I've run through just about every "perfect" fantasy in my head and will never get tired of doing so.
I always amaze my friends with how quickly I can take off into the sunset to chase these musings. I get lost almost instantly in a whirlwind of "what-ifs", and this happens so frequently that I too would think myself crazy if I didn't know any better.
A lot of people don't understand how I can get so giddy as I daydream about dates that probably won't happen in the near future (or maybe even ever). They tell me I should consider thinking more practically, that I should consult my heart less and make decisions with my head a little more.
They tell me that romance is a fading art and that trying to salvage bits and pieces of it are useless.
But why should we think for even a second that romance is dead?
Romance is everywhere we go. If we truly immerse ourselves in our world, if we can overlook its darker parts and all of its evils, there is so much beauty to discover right at our fingertips. What a lot of people don't always remember is that romance is not about what already exists; rather, it focuses on the mystifying and the unknown.
Romance is about dreaming of a brighter tomorrow. It's about imagining your future lover sweeping you off your feet. It's about feeling your heart race as your mind is swarmed with endless possibilities for memories to be had with someone you care about. It's about feeling your stomach flutter as you get ready for your first date, your third date, or maybe even your twentieth with that very same person.
Being romantic doesn't have to mean that you've abandoned logic. You don't have to renounce being rational to appreciate the more fanciful aspects of life. Having dreams doesn't have to make you foolish. Embracing our fantasies instead of shoving them away is so important in our quests for happiness and fulfillment.
I will never stop believing in love.
No matter who hurts me, no matter how many times I get my heart broken, I will always be driven by my desires for romance to pick myself up, dust myself off, and try again.
So to all of my fellow romantics out there, know that you're not crazy and you're definitely not hopeless. Rather, you're some of the most hopeful people that our world has to offer. Hang on to that, because in a society that tends to view life in black-and-white, believing in and wanting to explore a gray area is very, very brave.