The Things We Do For Love

Now, to be perfectly clear before I even start in on this, I LOVE The O.C. I love the characters, the setting, the soapy storylines and even the fact that they are a bunch of 30-year-old high school kids dealing with adult issues. I mean, of course I love it - I loved 90210 too, right? However, as I watched today, I just got annoyed by the scene because I know what it's done to love lives everywhere.

Today, an epic episode was replayed. It was the day that Seth Cohen finally took a stand in his non-relationship with Summer. You see, whether it was shame or fear, Summer didn't acknowledge Cohen in public at the beginning. They spent plenty of time behind closed doors shagging like crazy, but when they entered the world of the high school, Summer tried desperately to hold onto the status quo of looking down on Seth's emo geekiness. Seth went along with this for awhile - after all, he was gettin' some, right? After some wise words from Anna, though, he put an end to it by refusing to get jiggy with Summer until they went public.

In one of the greatest declarations of love of all times, Cohen jumps on top of the coffee cart at school and tells everyone that yes, he's emo and yes, he's a total dork, but that he's a dork that's dating Summer Roberts. The cool guys look on in horror while the gaggle of girls in cheerleading uniforms gaze at him with sappy smiles. There's a tense moment when Seth reaches his hand down to Summer, but of course she joins him and they kiss. Fabulous, right? Wrong.

See, this is the exact sort of thing that ruins love for the average joe. Watching this makes me want this. I start to dream of a grand gesture, an epic love, a perfect expression of love. The problem is that real life isn't Hollywood. There are no actual dragons to slay and those of us in the real world have to rely on the small things to recognize those that love us. The grand gestures of screens big and small set expectations that we just can't live up to and that make it hard for us to realize when we find the real thing. All it really means, though, is that we just can't be lazy - we have to work hard, put ourselves out there, and remember that the people around us don't have writers doing the work for them.