"The problem in public life s learning to overcome terror; the problem in married life is to overcome boredom." - Fermina Daza (Love in the Time of Cholera)
I have been reading Love in the Time of Cholera since... uhmm time immemorial. It is not that i do not have time reading it but it is just... unbearable for me. I just read it because i have already started reading it and have the need to finish it. It talks about lost love, unrequited love. I know i should be able to relate to it; my friends will totally agree. But i think i know how it would end. The lead man and girl would end up together after the death of the girl's husband (for those who have read it, feel free to correct me). We all have our one great love and most of the time, he is not the person that we will end up marrying.
So how can we define what a great love is? Is it the ratio of the happy times versus the difficult times? Is it the length of time that you were together? Based on my own experience, it is short lived. We loved each other, yes, but as the song goes, it is the wrong time, and til now the time has not come and i don't think it will ever be. What if we were given the time that we need? Will we end up getting married or we'll also end up with the 5-year itch? Maybe that is the reason why he is my great love, because we didn't have the chance to discover each others flaw, fight over differences of opinion, or get jealous with the hot chick or guy on the next table.
Let us say as years passes by, i finally got married. We were happy; we were in love (take note of the tense), and then my great love comes along. My heart beats faster as if I had 3 shots of espresso for breakfast, sweats in all the undesirable parts of my body. We talk and catch up, and then suddenly memories flashes back; memories that you had tried to forget with ease as you tied the knot with your beau. Would I feel the same if i am happily in love with the person i chose to marry? I guess not. I maybe idealistic but marriage is a hell of hard work. Yeah, I'm not yet married, but I know friends who are continuously making their marriage work and some who failed. Just imagine yourself being with a single person for the rest of your life. There will be times that there is nothing you can talk about. You know each other so well that there is no mystery anymore. The thought scares me. What if I am not imaginative enough to make everyday a different day? Just like what they say, let's cross the bridge when we get there and burn it afterward, so there would be no turning back.
