Relationships- I've had an epiphany!

I will never fully understand a relationship- how people decide to be together and when and how they decide to call it quits, but I think I've had an epiphany. And here's my little revelation....

I was spoilt by Disney and the romcoms of the early 1990s and always imagined I would meet a guy and fall in love and that would be it. Marry my first boyfriend. Have a family with him. Be each other's team mate and, as they say, we would live happily ever after. Together, forever.

It was a message that seemed to be everywhere, not just in Disney cartoons. And as I grew up, I now realise we have all been set us up for failure. And hardly anyone marries their first boyfriend/ girlfriend.

I recently had an epiphany; it has taken me quite some time to realise that there are couples who have been together for decades; they have children together, share bank accounts, have a house together, have mutual friends and regularly see each other's families. Sometimes, these are the very couples who end up cheating on each other and then go to have a messy and pricy divorce. There was a time, when this very couple had met for the first time. They were in love and couldn't imagine a life without the other.

And, if people who have such a long history and who have shared so much of their lives together struggle to be with each other, then I am naive to think that things will be magic for me and Mr. Tinder. Maybe it will be. Maybe, I will one day understand who is and who isn't swipe-worthy.

For now, I realise that not all relationships are meant to last and that is okay. A lot of divorces and break ups are by couples who were once very happy and madly in love with each other. And the most important relationship that anyone will ever have is the one they have with themselves. While we are all hoping to have our happy ever after at one point, we shouldn't lose sight of ourselves and what makes us truly happy in the here and now.