you can go, you can stay

I want to be in love. In that really big way. In the amazing movie and book way. The way Edmond and Ada are in Cold Mountain. The way Sarah and Daniel are in Taming the Beast. The way Benjamin and Daisy are in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The way Sayuri and the Chairman are in Memoirs of a Geisha. I want to have what they have, to feel what they feel.
In each of those stories, they lose. War and death tear apart Edmond and Ada, society and brutal passion come between Sarah and Daniel. Benjamin and Daisy are lost to age and time, and Sayuri and the Chairman lose to a war and society beliefs. They can never quite get it together, it never works out. But in the end, no matter what has happened and who they ended up with, they're all still in love with each other. Despite everything, what they feel doesn't waver, not even a little, and the fact that they aren't with each other anymore doesn't make a difference. They found each other by pure luck and were only together for a short period of time, but those few moments they had were enough. They all had the love at first sight part down, but without the rest of the fairytale and even though they never got the fairytale ending, the memories of the beginning and middle were enough. They accepted that they can't have a perfect ending because everything ends and nothing is forever.
I know it's not real, and maybe love like that can never be real. Maybe we all settle for what we can get and the rest is just in our heads. Maybe there are no soul mates and maybe there is no love at first sight. And maybe that's why they all lose. Maybe we can't have everything. Maybe true love is something we just can't keep.