Happily (N)Ever After

We’ve heard them a thousand times. Those three little words at the end of every story, where the damsel in distress is saved from the evil dragon or witch or whatever by her knight in shining armor. Then the two of them ride off into the sunset, become king and queen of the kingdom, have many kids and live, wait for it,

Happily. Ever. After.

Bullshit.

Every story may start with Once Upon A Time, but they sure as hell don’t end with Happily Ever After.

My story’s got a few of those Once Upon A Time deals. “Once Upon A Time, I was happy,” for example. Or, “Once Upon A Time, things made sense.” Oh! Even better: “Once Upon A Time, I made the right kind of decisions.”

My story’s got everything else, too. Damsels in distress, knights in shining armor, evil dragons and witches. Not gonna lie, I’ve been all three. Which one am I now?

That, is an excellent question.

I’m not entirely sure, to be honest. But that’s the problem with every fairy tale, isn’t it? Everything is so clean cut. Good must win, evil must fail. Just once can’t we be realistic about things and not let the prince get his princess, or let the evil queen rule over her kingdom for all eternity? I mean, how many real happily ever afters are there. Not a whole lot. Every time you think you see one, it just turns into another plot twist in this great big fucked up Choose-Your-Own-Adventure we call life.

The difference being, there really aren’t happy endings. I know my story’s far from over, but the way I see it, I’m gonna be sitting in this here tower waiting for my Prince Charming for a long, long time.