"She had lost the great arrogant years in the life of a pretty girl"

Here we go again...another Valentine's day, another decision to make. In my typical tendency to defy the "norm," I wasn't going to comment on Valentine's Day. I wasn't even going to be even the slightest bit bitter about being single and all. For whatever reason, last year I LOVED Valentine's Day...I felt so optimistic and even excited for the day, though I had no romantic prospects whatsoever. This year I find myself ambivalent. But I'm commenting, contrary to my normal behavior.

The quote, "She had lost the great arrogant years in the life of a pretty girl" came from F.Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night, and it has really stuck with me. I was journalling some thoughts that have been circulating my mind for several weeks now, and thought they'd make a satisfactorily non-traditional Valentine's rant. This will sound very arrogant. You've been warned.

It is an enormous disappointment to the Pretty Girl to learn that there is someone for everyone. Every person is beautiful to someone and we're not just talking about a mother's love here. Because everyone can be beautiful, there is nothing special in being beautiful. Nothing unique. Nothing that will cause the uncomfortably gorgeous, green-eyed Irishman to put down his guitar and take the Pretty Girl into his arms for a lifetime.

So what is the Pretty Girl to do? Develop character. After all, it's always the quirky-best-friend girl who puts on an incredible dress and wins her best friend's heart. But again, anyone can do that. Nothing particularly unique there.

So what is the Pretty, Quirky and Fun Girl to do? Well, she's to go on with her life, making choices on how she will live. She will enter a new job, she will travel to another country and fall helplessly in love with a local, learn his language and live a culturally shared bliss, peppered with the humorous side stories of miscommunications and cultural faux pas. But how likely is that to actually happen? I mean, it does, every day, but the Pretty, Quirky and Fun girl can't go overseas with that possibility as an eventuality.

So what is the Pretty, Quirky and Fun, Culturally Interested Girl to do? She could become bitter. She could resign herself to a life of Sisterhood, feeding the orphans and denying her own hunger for love and relationship. She could learn the hard walk of self-reliance, learning to lean only on herself and to become emotionally detached and distrusting of love and armorous intent. That is, until the patient, blue-eyed 6'2" heart of gold breaks her from her tough outer shell and releases her into a world of comfort and happiness and trust. But when the Girl only has one life...a numbered number of days, why spend those miserable?

So what is the Pretty, Quirky and Fun, Culturally Interested, Emotionally Unfulfilled Girl to do?

Turn off the tv. Stop frequenting the dollar theatre for Irish brogue. Live. Because it's likely to be better than what Hollywood produces. Love. And continue to dream.

Always, continue to dream.