A poisoned girl from an apple cured with true love’s kiss, a helpless girl stuck with her evil stepmother saved by a wanting prince, and a girl in an eternal sleep due to a spinning wheel gets awakened with love’s first kiss. 

Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. All of these Disney movies tell us how one day, when we’re in trouble, a handsome prince will wipe us off our feet and rescue us. Becoming an actual Prince Charming.

If you don’t like Disney, think of these instead: even after 14 years apart, a man still built his first love’s dream house, A woman has short-term memory loss that makes her forget everything that happened the day before but a man tries every day to woo her despite it, and when in freezing waters the boy choose her life over his and saves her.

“The Notebook.” “50 First Dates.” “Titanic.”

 No matter how old you are, what movies you watch, or what platform you watch, you see a show of true love and devotion. So you set your expectations high. You want it all: the big bouquet, the boombox outside your window, and the love letters. 

Then, when you start dating, you realize, for some reason, most people now think being “nonchalant” and playing hard to get is love. So you settle. Yet, in your heart, you know you want more. You want big romantic gestures but can’t get them in the real world.

Scrolling on Instagram, you see pictures of the famous couple who just went on an extravagant vacation because he wanted to “surprise her.” 

So you move on to TikTok and see videos of people making big gifts and baskets for their partners “just because.” We see through our phones how amazing these relationships are, long for the same treatment, and sit in despair, thinking we won’t get it. We are shown exaggerated things that make us compare our love to theirs, which fosters jealousy.

Relationships are ruined since we always expect better, but when we are shown these movies, shows, and social media posts every day we can’t help but set our expectations high.