I Wish My Life was a Nicolas Sparks Movie
No. No you don’t. I admit, I am guilty of saying this as well, but really, have you actually put any real thought into what that means?
Message in a Bottle
A woman finds love letters a man has written to his dead wife. She tracks him down, hiding both her knowledge of his letters and that she is writing an article about them, and they fall in love. But he is unable to move on from his dead wife so they separate. He then comes to visit her and reconcile, but finds his letters that she had hidden and he leaves. A year later she learns that he died, but not before professing his love for her in yet another letter to his dead wife.
A Walk to Remember
As a girl who is Christian, this, of course, was the movie I wished my life was. Outcast girl and cool boy start to spend time together and he turns his back on his friends and changes everything about himself to fit into her world and heart. Then he finds out she has Leukemia, so they quickly marry and she dies.
The Notebook
I love this movie. Pretty much every girl does; an intense romance AND Ryan Gosling, right?! But.. boy from the wrong side of the tracks and the rich girl fall in love, her parents separate them and she agrees to marry someone more suited to their expectations. He continues to pine after her and build her dream-house. She finds out and goes to visit him. They rekindle their extremely toxic relationship, and fast forward to their future where she has Alzheimer's and rarely remembers him or their children. Then, they die. Very conveniently leaving out the years in between that would undoubtedly be filled with turmoil.
Nights in Rodanthe
A woman from a broken family and a man being sued for malpractice end up together at her inn during a storm. They bond and fall in love. When he goes home, they continue to write and plan to reunite. He doesn’t show up on their reunion date because he has died.
The Last Song
Teenage girl turns her back on her musical talents and her father when her family separates. When she and her brother are sent to spend the summer with their dad, she meets a boy who she shuns at first but then bonds with over a nest of turtle eggs. This softens her and she starts to rebuild her relationship her dad. When the eggs hatch, her father collapses, sick with cancer. The boy admits his friend caused a fire that her father had been blamed for and they fight and he leaves for college. She finishes the song her father was composing, and her father dies. She decides to go to Julliard, and the boy returns to tell her he’s changing colleges to be close to her.
Dear John
Boy meets girl. They fall in love and he joins the army. They write letters and plan their lives together for when he returns from his tour, but 9/11 happens so he re enlists. She gets engaged to someone else. He re enlists again. 4 years later his father is dying so he returns, and discovers her husband is also dying and she had given up on her dreams to take care of her husband. She wants him to stay, her husband knowing she is still in love with her first love, but he leaves again. More time passes, who knows how many years they have wasted, they meet again, and the movie ends.
The Lucky One
A marine finds a woman’s picture and when he returns home he decides to find her. He does, but instead of telling her why he is there, he begins to work for her, never revealing he has the picture. He bonds with her and her son until her ex husband, who has an explosive temper, exposes him. She tells him to leave, her ex almost kills the marine and threatens to take their son when she won’t reconcile with him. The son runs off and almost drowns and the ex husband and marine work together to save him. The marine gets the girl, and they move on together.
Safe Haven
A woman changes her name and appearance and runs away from her police officer husband who is also an abusive drunk. She falls in love with a widower and his family and they develop their relationship until her husband arrives to find her. He pulls a gun on her and burns down the family’s store. She kills her husband and everyone moves on. Oh, and the woman’s new best friend in the new town turns out to be the ghost of the widower’s dead wife.
So yes, sometimes they do get to be together in the end, but the things that have happened are so traumatic that we’d be foolish to believe everyone was living ‘happily ever after.’ The adults all have huge trust issues with each other and many of have ptsd and other psychological issues. The children, some of them aren’t old enough to process what has happened to them, will ultimately be in therapy for years.
Passion is a beautiful thing, but reality is lasting. Find happiness. Don’t spend your life hoping that someone will change to be who you want them to be, they won’t. Don’t wish for tragedy, you’ll have enough as it is, that’s life. Don’t spend your life looking for love, but don’t spend your life ignoring it. Find balance and someone who will balance you, not throw your world into chaos. Enjoy these intensely emotional films, but don’t envy them. After all, you don’t know how many years you’ll get in this life, live them.
