A story

Where perception lies…

Every story is impactful and cute depending on the story teller and their perspective. Sometimes, it’s easier to take sides with the villain in a story because the story is narrated from the villain’s point of view. So, we get to see their wrongful acts laced with emotions.

Suddenly, you are taking sides with a girl that jilted her husband-to-be on their wedding day (without considering the wedding cost and the disappointment) and of course, the guy being jilted is not the main character. So, all is fair. Nobody gets to talk about that. Nobody lingers on their pain.

That doesn’t make you pause and wonder, does it?

And that’s what made me fall in love with Emily Henry’s books, especially Book Lovers and Funny Story. These two books tell the story of two women that were jilted, left for yada yada reasons. In Book Lovers, Nora is dumped by her boyfriend because he met a perfect small town girl. Just like that. In Funny Story, Daphne’s fiancé realized he has been in love with his childhood friend and yes… enough reason to dump our girl. From the their point of view, we are exposed to what it really feels like to be hurt, and neglected out of the blue; but sometimes, we see a story from a different standpoint where we “awwn” and jump to the thought of the main character eloping on her wedding eve with the perceived male main character.

I’m someone who screams and jumps for joy when someone in a movie or book suddenly realized they are in love with someone and decides to leave (another person, another situation) to find their heart desire.

I’m someone who enjoys reading the friends-to-lovers trope and I don’t care whether our main character is in a relationship, I would blush and scream when they discover they are madly in love with their friend.

But I don’t pause to think of welfare of the one who has been jilted. Or even if I do pause, it’s only for a while and I’m back to shipping who the writer wants me to ship because… it’s not their story. Maybe in another book or movie when it’s their story, I will be able to feel their pain and finally curse the one who brought that pain to them but for now… no. Not now. It’s not their story.

Which brings me to this: your life is a full story on its own and you are the main character, the protagonist. The one with the full power to spur emotions. And as the main character, we do things that seem right in our eyes but sometimes they aren’t. However, the way we tend to paint it with our emotions, thoughts and feelings make people see through our lenses and conclude, “that person wronged you.” But sometimes, the person didn’t wrong you; you are the villain.

On the other end of the spectrum, we are all floating/ side characters in other people’s story, we can be easily jilted. Easily forgotten. We can be eliminated (not death) when we are just taking space and serving no purpose. And when this happens, there’s no 3-second sad song for you. No pause. Everything goes on. Nothing stops. If you choose to remain sad, nobody is pausing with you. Just like a movie, life goes on. There are other scenes to watch.