Love: some are looking for it, and some are avoiding it, but everyone has heard of the hardships that come with it. I have heard the phrase “all men are trash” all my life and have had experiences with my fair share of bad guys all while believing true love was not real.

 With dating, the expectation of finding a love story of our own that matches our favorite Hallmark romance movie can be a bit unrealistic, similar to society’s expectation of romance.

 I think it is impossible to find a love that is perfect in all aspects. Finding the right partner should be more about making the perfect relationship. This probably has roots in how Disney movies are targeted toward finding the perfect match and a magical love story.

 I watched a lot of Disney movies as a kid and remember asking myself when I would find my Aladdin; the answer was, sadly, never. While women are looking for prince charming and finding out that “I love you forever” sometimes only lasts two weeks, the good men out there sometimes get overlooked.

 There are nice men out there, and I can say from experience that patience is a big part of finding love. Having the dream of finding someone who treats us like a princess and understands us like no one ever are both aspects of a relationship that are created and never just handed to you.

 The statement that all men are trash is very off-putting and has more to do with the men that pursue women with ill intent rather than all men. I have heard friends say to me when their relationships have nothing wrong that they “lack spice” within the relationship itself. But is this not a good thing?

 Why are passion and aggression linked so closely in a relationship when all we want is affection?

 Many times, we mistake the toxic traits of controlling as caring when, in reality, these are just bad relationships with bad people and do not mean your next will be the same. I have been through this stage and thought process in a space where I feel like there are no good men in the world and that true love is not real.

 I realized when I met my current partner that true love is not found but made. True love does not come to you, but rather, you go towards true love with someone worth the time and effort.

Growing up, I always thought those boys that were into anime and were smart were really cute but would always be told by my friends that the boys that had dated the majority of the girls in our grade were the ones I should be finding attractive.

 I questioned this logic my whole life of how a “player” has more women wanting to date them than a man that is sweet and shy. Possibly, it can be that these men tend to be introverted and are not as social and the players are those with more confidence and can attract more women that way.

 There is also the argument of why does a man need to pursue women and not the other way around? In the day and age that we live in today, it is completely acceptable for a woman to be the one that is trying to win over the man.

 This can also be seen as a way for the woman to know the true intentions of a man before getting into a relationship with them. The fact is that there is a perfect partner out there for us, but they are not ones that will come on a flying carpet but rather by surprise. The perfect partner will not have a genie in a lamp but rather good communication skills, it will just take time and a lot of patience for you to find them.