Once upon a time...
Growing up, every girl listened to the reading of fairytales as they laid in bed at night. We have all heard tales of the glass slipper, the seven dwarfs, and the rescuing of the princess from the tallest tower. As little girls we all dreamed of finding our prince charming and living happily ever after. We fanaticized being rescued and whisked away on the majestic vanilla white horse and riding off into the sunset. These clichés filled our heads of the hopes of one day finding our own fairy tale.
As we grew older, we realized that life isn’t as simple or magical as the world painted between the pages of our picture books. Life is complicated and struggles arise from no where and we are challenged to face them everyday. We learn that not all men are a prince charming, and that unfortunately, more often than not we find men who have qualities that do not rise to our expectations. But, even when we grow up and realize the harsh truth and struggles that are intentionally left out of our childhood books, the lessons and morals that we learned from them still follow us and apply to our lives today.
"Cinderella" taught us that anyone can find true love. Even Cinderella, whose love life was sabotaged by her evil stepmother, found the man of her dreams. This tale showed us to never let anyone knock you down or belittle who you are, and you must stand up for yourself in order to get what you wish. "Beauty and the Beast" trained us to never judge a book by its cover. Belle didn’t disregard the beast even though his appearance was not the same as everyone else’s. She found the beauty in him and fell in love against all odds. Today's world focuses so much on appearance and looks, but that is not what love focuses on and that is what Belle taught us all. Similarly, "Aladdin" explained that we need to focus less on money and material possessions or social status. Jasmine learned that he was not royalty at all, that he was a “street rat,” bu he made all her dreams come true without money or fame. These are not the things that create happiness or love. We know now to not take no for an answer and to rebel against others to find love and happiness. Ariel went against her father's wishes in order to meet the man of her dreams and taught us to rebel as well. Today people sway against society, tradition, their religion, and really fight for what they believe happiness is. This a lesson we all learned around age five from "The Little Mermaid". "Mulan" and "Pocahontas" taught us all young girls to be strong, to be brave, and to fight for our freedoms and beliefs. Neither of those princesses put up with being mistreated from men, or anyone else for that matter. We must be strong and brave and fight as well.
Now that I am older I realize that the book of fairytales that sat on my bookshelf isn’t so useless after all. The writers were preparing us for finding our own prince charming and for the women that we strive to become today. They were filled with valuable lessons and morals that are significant far beyond the make believe.
The End
