We grow up hearing stories and fairy tales ending with the line "and they lived happily ever after." and for a while we believe that we too will find a happily ever after just like the characters in the story did. But life isn't a fairy tale and we don't have just one prince charming that we ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after with, for most of us we think we've found our prince charming but it only ends up lasting for a little while.

It's cheesy to say that you've found your prince charming but at one point I thought I had found mine. He wasn't your typical prince and we did not live happily ever after because this certainly wasn't a fairy tale. But the story is the same, boy meets girl, they talk, they hang out, they fall in love. Now this is where my story takes a turn.

We were at such different points in our life. He was moving on and growing up quicker than I was and I just wasn't enough for him anymore. The thought of my happily ever after quickly faded. He had bigger dreams and aspirations that didn't include me, I was the girl he left behind as he rode off toward a different ending.

After the many dark days following the end of our relationship is when I realized that in life we don't need to have just one happily ever after and one fairy tale. The reason for our happiness doesn't need to come from a boy, it could come from a goal you have being achieved, success, or from finding happiness in travel and nature. I learned to not let a single person or thing define my happiness or determine the love I have for myself.

Just because things with prince charming didn’t work out, doesn’t mean you are not a princess and you still deserve your happily ever after, however that is achieved.