Is romance dead or is it just hiding? What even is romance any more? Swiping right and looking at a picture of someone with a list of interests, or lack there of, is now so normal for people 18+ to find their one true love! But is that really how people want their "this is how we met" story to be? Speaking as a 20-year-old hopeless romantic in 2019, I do not want to meet my one true love online, however, I have downloaded tinder just in case that is my only source of finding someone. it seems now that there is no other way to meet someone so I go along with the norms of society and swipe left and right just like everyone else. but what do I really want? I want to be reading a book in a coffee shop and have a guy come up to me telling me that I'm reading a book written by his favorite author. I want to go to Paris and meet an attractive French guy who takes me dancing. I want the fairytale ending. Does that exist any more? At this point, I am very open to even meeting someone at the local bars as long as it is in person. I want to judge someone's character based on how they carry themselves in person and how they can hold a conversation about real things that matter. I see all these great romances passing me by and my heart hurts because that is not something I have experienced before. What happened to going to carnivals and holding hands in a park? do people in love actually do that or is that something I made up in my mind after watching romantic comedy after romantic comedy?

So, I'll ask again, is romance dead, or is it just hiding?

Grace Parsons