Four Simple Letters

A beautiful blonde girl, adorned in a blue dress by talking mice loses her glass slipper, her true love finds it, they end up together and have a happily ever after.  Her bright red lips suck into a poison apple as she falls into a deep sleep only to be awoken by a true love's kiss. To no surprise, she too had a happily ever after.  “The Blindside”, a true story about a woman who took in this homeless child, made him part of her family and made him the huge success he is today. Leigh Anne Tuohy taught Michael Oher the true meaning of love and is he is now proud to call the Tuohy family his own.  Whether it’s the love of a friend, the love of family, or just true love, American movies, and stories, tend to end in the same way, a “happily ever after”.  While the word “love” for us may paint a picture of an elated couple riding off into the sunset on a horse, it is important to know that those four letters mean different things to other countries.  It's important to tell and to read stories from other countries to show all the different meanings of love from all around the world.  In the United States, we expect to meet someone, fall in love, walk down the aisle, receive a metal ring, and live forever in lust, while that may not be true for people in Nigeria, India, or Japan.  When I read the story “On Meeting My 100 Percent Woman One Fine April Morning” by Haruki Murakami, I had realized that outer beauty does not play a role in his love.  Another depiction Americans grow up with is the ideal princess;  flawless figure, beautiful face, lovable personality, and overall the “perfect” girl.  We try to achieve the unachievable when it comes to our body because we are never satisfied.  
“My nose is too big!”
“My boobs are too small!”
“My jeans won't fit!”
One thing we don't realize is that true love is blind. When Haruki went home and told someone he had found his “100 percent woman”, I, as the reader had realized he had something special, he had love, and im talking real love.  “I absolutely cannot even remember what her nose looked like - not even whether she had a nose or not, only that she wasn't especially beautiful.  How bizarre!”. He knows he loves her, and yet he knows she does not have the ideal body, or nose shape. Another thing that instantly caught my attention was the fact that this story didn't end in a ceremony.  It didn't end with a kiss.  It didn't end with this man and woman even standing next to each other. No, instead ended in them walking past one another.  In this story, the protagonist sees his soulmate, or “100 percent women” on a “Harajuku back street”.  He starts to walk towards her, and as he comes to the realization that they are getting closer and closer to one another, he starts to come up with ways to talk to her, “Now how in the world should I speak up to her? ‘Good morning.  Would you please speak with me for just thirty minutes?’ ”. After a little too much thinking he snaps back to reality and realizes the moment had passed.  He had turned around only to see that she had vanished in the immense crowd of people. Hold on, this is the part when shit gets interesting. Now if this story were written by Walt Disney, Shakespeare or even E.L. James, this scene would be played out differently than it actually was.  Haruki and his “100 percent woman” would immediately turn around, lock eyes, and BAM! The doves would be flying around the screen, the slow motion and dramatic music would suffocate the air, and the couple would leap into each other's arms because “it's always a happy ending” right? Wrong.  You see, what actually happened was they walked past each other, and they just... kept walking.  It seems as though there is more of a reality in other countries of what happens behind the camera, lights, and screen. The boy ended up living his life in regret and us, as readers, shed a tear and shut the book as the last line reads “That's what I should have tried to tell her.”.  A life fulfilled because of a kiss and a life filled with regret because of the words one couldn’t utter are just two of the many ways that the world writes, reads, and lives a love story.