Life

When You Love Romance But Also Find It Cheesy AF

by Kaitlyn Wylde

When it comes to my feelings about romance, I'm divided. The duality in me gives me the ability to both cry my eyes out while watching romance films, and the ability to roll my eyes so hard they fall out of my head whenever anyone does anything nice for me. I guess in either scenario, I end up without eyes, which really seems like an unnecessary detail and unrealistic circumstance. All the same, I'm very aware of the fact that I both want the greatest love there is, and the chillest love there is.

I want to be swept off my feet, showered with affection, gifted, showed off, celebrated, and doted on. I also want to be left alone and have at least a foot of space between us while we watch The Affair on TV and secretly fantasize about cheating on each other. I want to brush the hair back from someone's face while I admire them in the sunlight and I want to kiss all the corners of their mouth and cry to my friends over how full of love I am. I also want to keep it light and not let a romance be my center of gravity. If you find yourself in the same predicament, these are probably some struggles you experience when you think about the fact that you want that cliche romance but you also can't help but cringe at it, too:

Social Media

You go back and forth between wanting to be acknowledged for all the Internets to see, and unapologetically making fun of every couple who partakes. You can't decide which side of the fence you're on.

Love Notes

They're nice in theory, but when someone spends too much time putting thought in what they want to say to you, you can't help but feel like it's too contrived and sentimental.

Grand Gestures

Are they nice or embarrassing? You can't decide. A hot air balloon ride might be fun, or it might be really, really cheesy.

Cuddling

Sometimes it's nice to be held. Other times you need your freakin' space and no one is special enough to be exempt from your "no touch, just sleep" rule.

Gifts

Exchanging gifts with a loved one is usually more stressful than fun. The amount of thought and effort that goes into a personal gift is exhausting. Sure, you'd love to get and give the most clever tokens of appreciation, but at the same time you're like, can't I just get them an iTunes gift card from the pharmacy?

Declarations

Of course we all like security and a declaration of love certainly might contribute to our needs to feel safe. But at the same time, it's like, relax.

Images: Giphy, Summit Entertainment