The first definition of Romance that I believed in stemmed from the music I listened to during early high school years. I was positively in love with bleeding heart Indie music, in particular, Dashboard Confessional. I spent hours memorizing every heartfelt, soulful, longing, falsetto word sung to acoustic guitar that Chris Carraba sang. The songs always involved the love of his life leaving him broken hearted, and his declaration of his devotion regardless of how this girl treated him.
When I first listened to these songs, I was positively inexperienced in love, but I considered myself an expert based on my brief, immature, "relationships". I hoped and dreamed that one day a boy would fall head-over-heels in love with ME too, a boy who would still love me when I was sad or crabby or in my sweatpants, and who would pine for me long after our relationship was done.
On the other hand, I use Romantic to define a life that I want to live in my future. This life is in Paris or Prague or Milan, and is pre-war 1900's European decadence. Gilded furniture, crystal chandeliers, champagne with raspberries, sleeping 'til 2pm, shopping all day, dinner at 11pm, clubs all night long.
I believe that the life I romanticize grew NOT from what I commonly knew during my life, but from what I got just a taste of. I associate rare or exclusive with romantic, which absolutely is a product of marketing campaigns by luxury brands. I know that if the life I consider "romantic" became my reality, I would begin wishing for another type of life. If I had Champagne every day, I would stop thinking it was romantic.
Thus, I believe romance incorporates more than simply a relationship; it describes a lifestyle. I have separate standards for each, grown through different sources. If only I could combine the two.... oh well. Cheers!
I really like this post because I think you make a good point that something seems "romantic" until you actually are living in it and then something else is then dubbed as "romantic." I believe that when something is "romantic" then you can make whatever "it" is what you want it to be. However start living what you had considered "romantic" you can't control the outcome so its magic is lost. I also think that no matter where you go, your problems and stresses with eventually follow, therefore I do believe that we will never truly have a "romantic life," but bit a pieces of one.
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