Growing up like most girls, I dreamed about getting married and living happily ever after.  My knight in shining armour was going to find me and sweep me off my feet and we were going to live happily ever after. The imagery was vivid the words were clear and my future shined bright….like a diamond.

I knew that Cinderella, the character, wasn’t real.  However,  I felt like I could make a version of Cinderella my reality. I knew I wanted a man who would

Treat me like a queen

Sweep me off my feet

Provide support

When I think about it, I really thought it was that easy if you found someone who you loved and they equally loved you back.  Love would conquer all.

Growing up in the 80s watching great family sitcoms helped to shape that fairy tale narrative. The best sitcoms showed a loving father and mother raising kids and navigating home life with a little bit of comedy. What could be better?

• the Huxtables, The Cosby Show
• The seavers, Growing Pains
• The Arnolds, The Wonder Years
• The Cunninghams, Happy Days
• The Ingallses, Little House on the Prairie
• The Winslows, Family Matters
• The Keatons, Family Ties

Hell, I was sold.  Between t.v., the movies and Barbie in all her pink glory at Toys R Us with Ken by her side smiling all the time who could fail. LOL.

Fast forward 20+ years. Anita Baker said it best in her 1990 song Fairy Tale “Reality stepped into view.”  I was young and naive when I married and I didn’t know what “living happily ever after” really meant.

Living happily ever after includes some things I wasn’t previously good at in totality or maybe when it mattered:

• compromise
• communications
• acceptance
• forgiveness
• self-preservation

A fairy tale is defined as a story in which improbable events lead to a happy ending.  As a wise adult, I now know that my fairy tale, my fantasy, my happily ever after is still to come and it’s what I envision. Most importantly, my happily every after may not look like your happily ever after.

While I wait, I will remember the words to Que Sera Sera. Whatever will be will be; The future’s not ours to see, Que Sera Sera

~Elle Camille