The following piece is an opinion and does not reflect the views of The Eagle and its staff. All opinions are edited for grammar, style and argument structure and fact-checked, but the opinions are the writer’s own.
I had never liked dating apps. Scroll, swipe left, scroll, swipe right. It was not only monotonous, but, in many ways, a waste of time. Often, I ended up with a guy messaging me, “Not looking for a relationship,” or even worse — going on a date with them only to be ghosted and blocked the next day. For a romantic like myself, this sucked.
But, in the fall of 2023, I matched with someone. Unlike most guys who asked for my Snapchat, he asked for my phone number, saying we should FaceTime. And we did — laughing, bantering and sharing stories for an entire hour. Within a month, we had our first date.
On April 14, 2024, we celebrated six months together. It’s the longest relationship I have ever been in — something both as frightening as it is beautiful. Learning to love and to be loved is one of the most rewarding feelings in the world. I have learned a lot in the last six months. As a writer, I immortalize my love through my writing, so my angel, this one’s for you. And to all the girls who were told they were “too much” to be loved, this one's for you.
Dear lover girls, you should not have to sacrifice yourself to be loved. Have you ever been told that you’re too much of something? From criticizing our physical appearances to criticizing our internal selves, the world seems to have it out for us lover girls. Love is not a too-small dress you have to shrink to fit in; love is all-encompassing. Who you are is worthy of love, regardless of what anyone says.
Dear lover girls, dream big and claim it — don’t settle for less than your heart’s desires! Often, women, especially, are told that they must “settle” for less than they deserve. Why do we convince ourselves that prince charmings don’t exist and that we have to settle for some guy from the Kogod School of Business who can’t even buy us flowers?
There are people out there willing to love us for who we are. There are people out there who want to treat us like princesses — and we deserve that.
Remember those Disney storybooks we used to read? The little tales of Cinderella and Prince Charming, Ariel and Eric and Beauty and the Beast? We used to dream of finding love like that. I used to think it didn’t exist, that fairy tales were simply that, but I have learned from this relationship that love exists in fluidity in all forms. And we all deserve to be loved.
Sophia Joseph is a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs and a columnist for The Eagle.
This article was edited by Alana Parker, Jelinda Montes and Abigail Turner. Copy editing done by Luna Jinks, Isabelle Kravis and Charlie Mennuti.
