Hope
So there's just something about watching love work out for the first time. I've been watching Dawson's Creek episodes lately (I know...guilty pleasure) but there's just something about the inherent giddiness in finding out that someone feels the same way for you that you feel for them. I don't know, something precious that is so easy to lose. And it's the reason that chick flicks are so popular. It's hard not to be hopeful about your own life after watching it work out for someone else.
Now sure, a lot of times if you keep watching it long enough it all falls apart. I've seen it happen. A lot. But there's something about watching it come together that leaves you hopeful. It leaves you saying, maybe, maybe, they'll get lucky. That it'll stay that way. Sure, it'll change. The beginning is just that. A beginning. And the end product (if there even is such a thing) is completely different. If you check in on the couple after 3 months, a year, 3 years, things are different. Maybe they've moved on to new people...it's always a possibility, in fact, it's the norm. Or just maybe, they're one of the rare lucky ones who, after years of being together even without the excitement of a new relationship, can look at the other and still see someone as important to them as when they first began. The relationship may have changed, but their belief in it didn't.
So maybe that's why I'm such a sucker for chick flicks. When you look around in real life and get bombarded with all the 'do overs' and 'i changed my mind's, it's nice to have something (even something as made up as a chick flick) to remind us to hold on to hope. Sometimes that's all we've got.