Starting Over

Ever since I can remember, a loving, romantic relationship was defined as one man and one woman being in a monogamous relationship. A man and a woman met, fell into a deep and passionate love for one another, and they lived happily ever after.

I guess you could say from the time I could comprehend adult relationships, I was set up for failure. I grew up with false expectations for what a relationship, and eventually, marriage should look like. I settled for the first guy that came along who wanted the same things as I did - get married, buy a house, have babies.

Part of the reason I settled for this man is that my world around me had shattered. My parents announced that after 29 years of marriage, they were getting divorced. I was 23. I had not lived at home in quite some time and from the outside everything looked perfect. Everything always seems perfect from the outside.  I was looking for normalcy and needed to prove to myself that "love" existed and that there was really a happily ever after. I wanted my happily ever after.