This is Not a Fairy Tale: An Introduction

Day 1,944, 14:52 • Published in USA USA • by Agent ballerina

Life is not a fairy tale.

Everyone always says it is, that in the end everything will be okay. That if it isn't okay it isn't the end.

That if you work hard you can be whatever you want, that with hard work you can achieve any goal.

That you will find your one true love. That you will know it’s them from that first moment. That they won’t love someone else. And you will live happily ever after.

They tell you there are two kinds of people, good and evil, and sure you might trust the evil person for a while, but in the end good will triumph again.

Sure there will be struggles along the way, there will be pain and worry, but none of that can’t be helped by a witty song and a cheerful talking animal.

That none of this will scar, none of it will leave its mark, none of it will cause irreparable damage.

But all of that is a lie. Life is not the fairy tale they say it is.

The ending is cruel, the lessons are hard. What you want and what you strive for are very rarely what you actually get. You chase after all the wrong people, you get your heart broken.

You come out battered and bruised. Broken and breathless. Wondering what you have to show from the journey besides the scars, besides the wounds you gathered along the way.

The thorns in your face, the branches tangled in your hair. The traces of where the people you knew were friends stabbed you in the back. The memories of indifference of everyone around you, the memories of unexpected kindness from the ones you hated. Because people are not black and white, they are all some gradient between the two, somewhere in between.

And all the times you struggled there was no talking animal, and sometimes it was too hard to sing, because how can you sing and sob or scream at the same time?

And sometimes the people who hurt you the most come out ahead, sometimes they get everything and you are left to wonder how far you could have gone wrong?

How you, the heroine of this fairy tale came out so far behind?

Because in reality there isn’t always an answer. There isn’t always a fairy tale ending.

Sometimes you accept the parts that are broken keep your eyes fixed on the horizon, because how can you dare to look back without stumbling? How can you look back and still have the strength to stand?

Because life isn't a fairy tale.