Mindy Carlson

“Why can’t my life be a fairy tale?”

It’s the refrain of every heroine in every romance novel and movie. Or—why limit ourselves?—it’s in every novel on the shelf and movie streaming through the interwebs.

What they mean is, “I want to skip to the Happily Ever After.” They want to wake up/have their life begin when their One True Love finds them and they saunter into dawn of a new and perfect future.

In the books and movies the heroine is told, “Life isn’t a fairy tale!” Usually by their mothers, best friends, or love interest. They’re partially right, because in life you can’t skip to the end of the story.

But I argue life actually is a fairy tale.

Sure, the doctor doesn’t say Once Upon a Time when you’re born and I haven’t yet managed to get the songbirds in my yard to do my laundry, but our lives have times where we’re in the dark forest where things are unknown, shadowed, and dangerous.

The Big Bad Wolf tries to eat you.

The Giant wants to squish you.

The Witch lures you in with sweets before attempting to cook you in an oven.

In writing, we call this the “fun & games” section. It’s the action, the learning, the luck, and the challenges. And isn’t that what life is? Fun, games, luck, sorrow, failure, success, and lessons hard-learned?

Sometimes those forests can seem too dark. The wolf is too clever. The giant is too big. But we do always come out on the other side. Sometimes worse for wear, but the forest isn’t infinite.

Eventually we come out on the other side into our Happily Ever After.

There’s a proverb I’m too lazy to Google that says, “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, then it isn’t the end.” As I edit this, I think it’s from the movie The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, but that doesn’t lessen the truth of this sentiment. Or the hope it instills. Because it will be okay in the end. The end may not be the one you envisioned or hoped for, but you will be okay. You will get your Happily Ever After.

A big promise, I know, but I believe it. Because I also believe our Happily Ever Afters are only temporary endings. A time of joy and sunshine on the path until we come to the next forest. The next adventure. The next fun & games. The next lesson to be learned.

We are living our fairy tale lives. Whether we are in a moment of Happily Ever After or in the forest. And knowing this, I feel more capable of taking control of the narrative. I have more strength to tell my own story, to take charge of the learning. I can fight The Wolf, The Witch, and The Giant.

You might be in the middle of the forest right now. Keep walking forward and know that you aren’t on the path alone. I’m right there with you.