Fairy Tales and Happily Ever After

We all remember those stories we were told as kids. You know the ones with the princesses who fall in love with the perfect guy they meet and its love at first sight. Then they all end up the same way, "... and they lived happily ever after." But what they don't tell you is what happens after that. They don't tell you that they probably got into many fights, they probably had many mean things to say about each other, they probably didn't want to tell you that maybe it didn't really end with happily ever after.
We all like to think that's where it all ended. That's what we want to end on, we are all so oppitimistic about being happy and having that perfect life. For once I want to see a fairy tale that doesn't end like that. I want to see a real girl, or guy, who goes through life who waits for that perfect person. Someone who grows up on these stories, who believes that one day they're going to meet the love of their life. But I want to see this person go through all the wrong people to struggle with every day decisions. How to pay the rent every month, how to get up and go to school and work and slide in a few dates every here and there. I want to hear a story of a girl, or guy, who falls in love with someone and that person doesn't love them the same way. I want to listen as the story unfolds and that person falls deeper and deeper into sadness because she, or he, finally understands that the perfect person isn't their perfect person. 
Its not much to ask. I want to relate to a story that gives me hope that through the bad there is good. I want a story that helps us twenty-somethings some reality. To know that life isn't perfect, it will never be. There will be times where you will be on cloud nine and there are times where you can't even roll out of bed because of the misery that has comsumed your thoughts and will to even go on. Why is it so hard for us to find something to hold on to. Why can't we just remember that every day there is a reason to go on and have a happy day/life? Why do we get so caught up in the struggle of the idea that life is perfect and we need to have that happy ever after. Why is it that we need to have another person to make us have that happy ending. Can't we be happy alone? 
Yes, yes we can. We sometimes have to let go of those fairy tales and realize that that is not how things go down. We have to have the struggles of life. If we take apart those stories we can see those princesses and princes weren't perfect. Why do we think they were. Cinderella had to live with her step mother who was a total [witch.] Snow white lived with seven men and had a problem trusting strangers. Rapunzel had a hair problem, Aladin was homeless, Prince Phillip, as perfect as he seemed, had flaws. Its so easy to look past all these imperfections and jump to the end because that's the best part of the stories.
When the end of my life comes around, I don't want to be all caught up in the ending. I want to be remembered by what happened in the middle. We don't need a person to make us happy, but it sure won't hurt to have someone along for this crazy ride we get to call life. So until then we get to laugh, cry, be mad, and even have those days where moving an inch is not an option. We get to have those days where we watch an entire series on Netflix. We get to have those crappy dates. We get to have those dates we thought were perfect but never hear from that person ever again. We get to have days spent in sweatpants and hoodies, but we also get those days where wearing a dress because you freaking can. Its those crazy moments that are between the beginning and end that matter. So as a "twenty-something" I get to be sad, I get to be happy, I get to question my sanity. I am allowed to ponder upon being a stripper instead of finishing school. I do not have to have my life together. And neither does anyone else. I have to keep tellin myself that even those near the end of their days don't have it together. 
I'm not saying you gotta forget those stories, I just think that maybe we can hold on to those hopes of a happily ever after, but what matters most is what leads up to that. Remember "...and they lived happily ever after" is just a single line in a whole book.