Be your own knight in shining armour

The Vietnamese boat, on which I met the Argentinian girl. compensate for your low self esteem.

I’m not entirely innocent of this either. As much as I’m a self-professed independent girl, I too sometimes indulge in these fantasies of upscaling my life upon the emergence of a man. It took me many meets to realise that expecting a man to fulfil all these nonsensical expectations is, frankly speaking, deranged.

I blame the movies. I really do. They tell us that someone will chase after us at the airport, someone will come by and

Be your own Superman! say all the right things and make all the right gestures, and someone will mend everything that is wrong with us.

They also tell us that this person will look like a re-incarnation of Jake Gyllenhaal. As a result, many of us latch onto this wrong idea of just waiting around instead of taking charge of our own lives and happiness.

HERE COMES THE SAVIOUR

Perhaps there is some truth to having someone sweep you off your feet and taking you away from the life you know to something better, as aptly demonstrated by that Argentinian girl.

Perhaps for some people in some parts of the world, where life is a lot harder and chances are a lot sparser, this is necessary. But, for the rest of us, ones who have just as many privileges, opportunities, freedom and will as these alleged “knights”, why can’t we rescue ourselves? A contented life shouldn’t only begin when somebody comes galloping by on a horse, so to speak. It is true that having the right spouse can increase the quality of one’s life. But, then again, to make it someone else’s task to fix our problems and make our lives better is unrealistic and irresponsible. As the writer Alice Sebold once wrote, “You save yourself or you remain unsaved.”

A good life begins when we decide to take control of our own fate, instead of sitting around staring at the far horizon, waiting for Jon Snow to come charging in and whisk us away to an imaginary castle. We should be our own knight in shining armour, so maybe it’s time to saddle up.