So I've been thinking a lot about love lately. That's right. I'm a boy and I think about love. Shocking I know. Anyways. I was watching Dan in Real Life and at the end of it I found that I was really frustrated. Love isn't like it is in the movies. DUH! I know. Yet those of us who aren't gettin' any turn to these types of movies to fulfill our needs. Am I right or am I right? So I was confused to why I was so upset after watching Dan when I should be like, "Awwww, isn't love great." I realized that love has never come easy to me or anyone I know like it did in this movie. It is not possible for Dan to be so in love with Marie so quickly. How does he know that he loves her when he did all the talking when they first meet? During the rest of the movie did they ever see each other at their worst? Or best? Did they ever get to really know each other? No. In the real world it takes work to gain love. It takes time to know some one's inner workings before you actually fall in love. I recently heard a song that said, "I want to love without the push and the shove." Then what is the point in loving? I see love as something so precious and edifying that should be worked for and fought for. Before that happens its just lust or infatuation, not love. The people I love the most in this world are those that I have had hard times with but we worked through it and THEN our love grew for each other. It started out as appreciation or infatuation but it wasn't really love until it was truly tried or I should say we were tried and we worked through it. This idea of "movie love" gives us the notion that real love can happen in an instant and I say, that from my own life, this is not true. And it is difficult to date in a society that seems fixated on "movie love" in real life because when things get tough then people bail out. I'm a hopeless romantic. I love being in love. I love watching chick flicks because of this. But from my personal experience I know that to gain true love one must work for it. So my new title for Dan in Real Life is Dan in NOT Real Life. Its a more accurate description of the movie. If I offended you with this post....good. Because this is what life is like. Its work but in the end it can be worth it. I look forward to being in love again and finding that person who is willing to work at our love because they're going to have to :).