Romanticize Yourself: Loving Love Is the Bravest Thing You’ll Ever Do
Janet Howard New York 2025 Collection makes the transition effortless — timeless pieces that keep you polished at home and stunning when the night calls.
I don’t care how old I get, I will always be obsessed with a great romantic book, show, and or series. Maybe its the lack of romanticism I’ve had in my life previously. Maybe it’s the years I spent mistaking bare-minimum “he texted back” validation for genuine intimacy.
Yet, here’s the thing: I’ve stopped waiting for someone else to sweep me off my feet. I’ve turned that spotlight inward.
I romanticize my own life. I do buy my own flowers. I do treat myself to small gifts for tiny-win achievements. I light candles for myself, pour wine for myself, and run the bubble bath just because I fucking deserve it.
Self-romance isn’t Plan B — it’s the Main Event.
But still — still — there’s something about sinking into someone else’s vision of love, even if it’s written on the page or flashing across the screen. And with every single movie, book, or series—it’s essentially someone else’s version of love.
Their heartbreak. Their fantasy. Their what-could-have-been.
It’s their nostalgia or their unfinished business disguised as fiction.
Maybe it’s something they had and lost. Maybe it’s something they never got. Or maybe it’s pure imagination, spun into something just believable enough to make the rest of us ache for it.
And God, do I ache for it.
Because when I watch those movies — the moments where secrets are about to be blown-the-fuck-up, or when sexual tension vibrates so hard off the screen that you can literally feel it down your spine — it makes me feel alive.
I appreciate an imaginable lukewarm romance. But I crave the kind that makes your breath hitch and your thighs clench. The scene where the enemies-to-lovers couple finally caves, and the camera captures every trembling inhale, every inch closed, until suddenly they’re pressed against a wall and you’re half-screaming at the TV like it’s the SUPER BOWL FUCKING SUNDAY.
I want the ugly-cry love story. The mascara-running, Kleenex-sticking-to-your-face, sobbing-so-hard-your-dog-checks-if-you’re-alive love story.
Ellie Mae knows the drill by now. She just stares at me while I’m snot rocketing into a tissue, silently calculating how many more hours until I’m well enough to feed her.
I’m not ashamed for wanting a great love story. For too long, I hid my emotions because they made other people uncomfortable. Fuck that. I cry when I’m sad, I cry when I’m happy, and sometimes I cry because Taylor Swift’s bridge made me feel like I’m getting dumped my a man I never even dated.
Sensitive? Sure.
Overdramatic? Abso-fucking-lutely.
But it’s me. It’s who I am.
When I binged The Summer I Turned Pretty—both the books and the show—I knew I was signing up for an emotional massacre. But I also knew if the show dared to veer away from the book, I would lose my absolute shit.
Nothing is worse than being strung along by a love story you already pictured in your mind, only for the writers to pull some chaotic-ass plot twist that makes you scream, “WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK WAS THAT?”
But thankfully—mercifully—this time, the ending gave me exactly what I needed: the right kind of heartbreak that circles back into hope. Belly and Conrad, messy and chaotic and destined, ended up together. Just like they were supposed to. Just like my ugly-crying, heart-clutching soul demanded.
By the finale, I was sobbing into my bong like it was my emotional support animal. Ellie Mae perched beside me with the face of a dog who knows her human is three tissues away from dehydration.
But honestly? I loved every second of it.
Because loving to love is the whole point. It’s the high and the crash. The ache and the relief. The goosebumps when tension finally snaps. The laughter through tears when the world feels too heavy.
And if anyone ever tells you it’s “too much?” Too sensitive? Too emotional?
Tell them: loving to love love is the bravest shit you can do. I dare you to try it.
Until next time..
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Below are some of my all-time favorite - what I deem romantic- movie quotes.
What are some of your all-time-favorite love story quotes?
Share in the comment section below!!
Do you remember the movie The NoteBook?
“That’s what we do! We fight. You tell me when I'm being an arrogant son of a bitch, and I tell you when you're a pain in the ass. Which you are, 99% of the time! I'm not afraid to hurt your feelings. You have like a 2-second recovery rate, and then you're on to doing the next pain in the ass thing. It's not going to be easy - it's going to be really hard! We're going to have to work at this everyday, but I want to do that. Because I want you. I want all of you. Forever, you and me, everyday.”
-Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook
How about, Meet Joe Black?
“Love is passion, obsession, someone you can't live without. I say, fall head over heels. Find someone you can love like crazy and who will love you the same way back. How do you find him? Well, you forget your head, and you listen to your heart. And I'm not hearing any heart. Cause the truth is, honey, there's no sense living your life without this. To make the journey and not fall deeply in love, well, you haven't lived a life at all. ”
The Fault In Our Stars?
"My love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful."
—The Fault In Our Stars (2014)
The classic, When Harry Met Sally…
"I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
