They just aren’t the same anymore. As our society has grown and changed, so have the means by which two people fall in love. We could blame the technology we have; it has made communication an effortless thing and has in turn been taken for granted. All of this digital communication has begun to substitute real feelings with emoticons and interpretations of punctuation rather than facial features, body language and voice. Maybe we can’t focus long enough to have a successful love story, our attention spans are so short that we get bored and ruin the relationships we have. But the possibility must be entertained that the love experienced by past generations is dead and we’re having to experience our own, new version of love.
What made a good love story for generations were the challenges that people had to face, but now the biggest challenge our generation has to face is mastering commitment to another person. Now people are in relationships for the wrong reasons. Society and the media have changed our generation’s view on what being in a relationship is all about; now it’s all about how cute you look together, being at the same level in the social hierarchy or even just about the physical benefits that the other can provide. That’s 100 percent the wrong way to look at a relationship, if you even want to be somewhat successful in the long run.
The way I see it, the last generation got the last good bunch of love stories, while the rest of us are left sitting enviously where we are. I have always been envious of my parents and the story they have, even though it isn’t perfect. My parents met each other when they were my age, working together at the same place that I work now, over 20 years ago. It was their freshman year of college and they were a little over five hours apart, but managed to stay together. After their freshman year my mom transferred to my dad’s college and they have been together since. They have been through fights, disagreements and some really hard times but still managed to stay together. Their's is a story of compassion, compromise and second chances; to some it is imperfect but to me it is a beautiful love story.
When forced to compare the stories now with love stories from past generations, it seems as though love and its stories keep getting worse and worse. In reality it may just be that they’re different and with each generation a new form of love story is born. Perhaps my aversion to the love our generation is experiencing now is due to my dated way of thinking. Maybe the best we are going to get is a cute text message or “promposal.”
Maybe I’m too young and I’m just ignorant to what life is really like, I am only 18-years-old after all. Maybe in the future I’ll understand all of this better, but for all of the maybes and the things I do not know, I do know that my best bet at a love story is with you.
