Until death do us part

    The concept of love is quite odd to me. As a child of divorced parents, the idea of 'until death do us part' even more foreign. Giving your all to another person seems weak to me, as if you are giving a part of yourself up. Now, I know that's not true, because I do see plenty of happy couples around me, but looking from the outside it's hard to see if love is really present or if it just tolerance with each other. When you see the cheesy quotes on Pintrest or Instagram about the idea of love, they say that you don't give up yourself for someone else, but rather that you bond with someone else (I'm not sure if this is an accurate representation, as I have never had the pleasure, or displeasure, of experiencing this scary feeling). Frank on the other hand, is the ultimate contradiction of this stereotype. An extreme version, he didn't just give up a part of himself for love, but his ENTIRE self for someone else. A confusing thing for me to understand, but I'm plenty aware that is just my young age and lack of life experience speaking. For a seventeen year old who vocally states that she has no intentions of marrying, I’ve received quite the backlash from my family members, blatantly telling me to stop being cynical and to enjoy life as it throws things at you, but still my utter distaste towards the idea of romantic love only grows as time passes, and backstories like Frank’s only make the idea less appealing. 

    At least for me, my idea of independence is always connected to the idea of being alone. I fend for myself and attempt to avoid relying on others for most things. Loving someone else and bringing them into your life only decreases this independence making you more vulnerable. This extremely cynical and deep analysis of love receives much resistance and many weird glares from my more hopeful friends, but when I watch movies like Little Miss Sunshine, it’s clear that the media won’t be changing that mindset anytime soon.