How to find your happily ever after

Danielle Bissonette

Ever since I was a little girl I’ve been obsessed with fairy tales. Princesses and castles, magic and Prince Charming, but most importantly happily ever after. I was Cinderella for many Halloweens and had princess birthday parties almost every year. When I went to Disney World at six years old, I was in heaven. Something about the fairytale world was just so compelling. Maybe it was the inherent happiness that surrounded all of these stories. 

Or the way good always won in the end. Either way, I dreamed of my own fairy tale life and the happy ending I knew I’d find. This was all well and good when I was little, but as I grew older this idea was challenged more and more. By high school everyone told me to give it up, that fairytale endings didn’t happen and that magic wasn’t real. 

As I faced hardship after hardship and letdown after letdown, I was constantly reminded that I wasn’t living in a fairy tale. Prospective princes turned out to be frogs, many people were poison apples and tragedy was everywhere; my life was beginning to resemble Cinderella’s pre fairy godmother. 

Obviously I was hurt, but I wasn’t giving up the dream that easily. Through thick and thin I held on to my hope. 

I believed I’d find my happy ending. I can’t say that it just came along one day because it didn’t. What happened was so much better. I found my happy ever after by actively choosing it. 

I stopped waiting for happiness like a damsel in distress and went out and got it myself. I created my happily ever after in my everyday life. I saw magic all around me.

 I began to notice the beauty in every day—the leaves changing in the fall, a conversation with a stranger, or making someone smile. 

I was living my fairy tale through the things I loved: coaching my cheerleading squad, helping kids understand math at my after-school job and teaching an ex-criminal how to read. 

As I began to focus on the good, my fairytale found me. 

Prince Charming came along, but he didn’t have to save me I met friends as loyal as Snow White’s dwarves. I worked towards defeating villains like hunger and homelessness. I even wore some pretty dresses along the way. What I’m saying is that fairytales do exist; you just need to create them yourself. 

You can find your happy ending by doing the things you love, surrounding yourself with good people and not waiting for anyone else to save you. If you’ve seen the pride in a child’s eyes when they show you the 100 percent they just got on their math test or experienced the overwhelming joy of a grown woman learning to read for the first time, then you know that magic exists. 

We all have the power to create our happily ever after, and we should encourage others to do so, too. This means promoting the dream rather than crushing it like so many people did to me. 

Don’t tell children that fairytales don’t happen—let them believe it and watch how many of them make it come true. 

When something goes wrong in someone’s life, don’t remind them that their life isn’t so magical. When your best friend and her boyfriend break up, don’t say that all guys are jerks, and when someone takes on an issue as big as poverty don’t say that one person can’t make a difference. 

We need to support each other and be happy for other’s happiness. 

Let’s promote the fairy tale and make what once were only stories into living realities. So, stop saying that fairytales don’t exist—because I’m living proof that they do. 

Challenge the idea that good can’t exist in such a cruel world. 

In fact, be that good. Stop saying Prince Charming can’t be real. 

Good guys do exist. 

Don’t give up on finding true, die-for-you friends-,even if you haven’t found them yet they’re sure to come along at some point. 

Don’t let poison apples and spinning wheels hold you back—pick yourself up and keep fighting. You can defeat the villain, and you can save yourself. 

Your fairytale wants to happen, it’s just waiting for you to turn the page.