Every story has its start – the spark that ignites the flame. In love stories, this spark has its own name.
The meet cute.
It’s the first encounter between two people who will inevitably become romantically involved. It’s John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale reaching for the same pair of black cashmere gloves, or Adam Sandler helping Drew Barrymore build a log cabin out of waffles.
Aww. How cute are those meetings?
But not everyone gets to find spontaneous love over breakfast food.
Take it from a girl who was raised on rom-coms like these; they can be misleading. In reality, meet cutes aren’t always as charming as the title suggests. Some of the greatest love stories have simple beginnings. Conversely, some of the cutest meetings are the catalysts for not-so-lovely relationships.
Take “(500) Days of Summer,” for example. The iconic film is a horror disguised as a romance. If it teaches you anything, let it be this: never let an unworthy someone “I love The Smiths” their way into your life.
A cute meeting does not guarantee a great relationship, just a great story.
Setting fiction aside, it’s everything that happens after the meet-cute that matters. So it’s okay for your relationship to start as a match on Hinge or a quick add on Snapchat. It’s okay if you’ve known your significant other for so long that your meet-cute is long forgotten. None of that diminishes the value of love in the real world.
Movie-worthy moments still happen – art imitates life, after all – and when you really love someone, every memory feels like one worth documenting.
But if you’re too busy waiting for the perfect beginning, the right one might just pass you by.
This Valentine’s Day, don’t let superficial expectations be the reason you’re out of a valentine.
