The Romance Of The Century

“Why am I not Meghan Markle?” is a thought that crosses my mind at least once a day. Dramatic, but also very true.

On this day last year Meghan and Harry announced their engagement. Following the announcement they posed for photos in the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace then sat down for an interview with BBC’s Mishal Husain. An interview I have watched many, many times.

I am genuinely obsessed with Meghan. Clickbait or not, if an entertainment site puts up a Meghan Markle post on Instagram I will head to the link in bio so fast. Outside of Instagram if I come across an article with Meghan’s name in the headline I must read said article.

She has been a #WCW ever since I first saw her on Suits but I only knew her as Rachel Zane. I did not follow her outside of Suits and was pleasantly surprised when her romance with Prince Harry became public. Meghan is beautiful. Seeing as every article about her is usually accompanied with pictures, I cannot help but notice how she is seemingly incapable of a bad photo. She looks beautiful in each and every shot. Like, bad-for-your-self-esteem beautiful.

One of the reasons Meghan and Harry are such a good match is their shared sense of philanthropy. Meghan’s mother raised her with a philanthropic spirit and at the age of 11 she stood up for gender equality. A move that saw P&G change the wording in their Ivory Dishwashing Liquid commercial from women to people. You have to check out this video of little Meghan explaining what drove her to write that letter to P&G. Quick aside, her hair!! The curls are popping!!

Prior to meeting Harry she was a global ambassador for World Vision, an advocate for UN Women, a counsellor for One Young World, among other causes. While filming Suits she made sure that any leftover food on set was donated to a soup kitchen she volunteered at in Toronto. As for Prince Harry, I really do not need to go into his humanitarian efforts do I? “Saving the world” is kind of his job description as a royal. Meghan and Harry did a lot of humanitarian work separately and it will be exciting to see what they will accomplish together.

Not only is Meghan beautiful, smart, kind, funny, classy and eloquent, she gets to travel the world doing what she loves on a regular basis with Prince freaking Harry by her side. Yet here I am, working with Microsoft Office for almost six years now. Whenever I get another media plan request I cannot help but think “why am I not Meghan Markle?” I am stuck in a job I no longer enjoy, with no boyfriend in sight. Not even a FWB or at the very least someone I am flirting with. It is just me and Microsoft Office. Meanwhile Meghan is living her best life, with Prince freaking Harry as her husband and a baby on the way.

Meghan married Prince Harry at 36 which is very comforting to me who is very single at 31. I also love what she, as a divorcée, represents for me as a single woman in my thirties. Even if things do not work out the first time around the universe can still give you another (better) shot at love. I mean, just look at the way they look at each other.

The only thing I want more than to be Meghan Markle is my real life Jack Pearson. If Meghan and Harry’s love story is my favourite real life one, Jack and Rebecca’s is my favourite fictional one. I dare any lady to say they do not want a Jack Pearson. He is all of the goals, even with his imperfections.

Super Bowl Sunday, the episode where we finally find out what happened to Jack, was watched by 26.97 million viewers. This Is Us usually airs on Tuesday, but they aired that episode right after Super Bowl LII. I work in advertising, so I can say with some authority that 26.97 million viewers is an impressive feat. The show’s on screen love for the Super Bowl translating so well to real life is advertising gold.

Randall and Toby are also pretty great guys. And I love me some Beth and Randall. Their relationship is just so cute. But Jack … Jack Pearson is the goal.

I read in this article by Kate Rose that we really only fall in love with three people in our lifetime. Please check it out but below is the gist of it.

Falling In Love the 1st Time: The Love that Looks Right

Often our first is when we are young, in high school even. It’s the idealistic love—the one that seems like the fairy tales we read as children … It’s a love that looks right.

Falling In Love the 2nd Time: The Hard Love

The second is supposed to be our hard love—the one that teaches us lessons about who we are and how we often want or need to be loved. This is the kind of love that hurts, whether through lies, pain or manipulation

 Sometimes it’s unhealthy, unbalanced or narcissistic even. There may be emotional, mental or even physical abuse or manipulation—most likely there will be high levels of drama. This is exactly what keeps us addicted to this storyline, because it’s the emotional roller coaster of extreme highs and lows and like a junkie trying to get a fix, we stick through the lows with the expectation of the high … It’s the love that we wished was right.

Falling In Love the 3rd Time: The Love that Lasts

And the third is the love we never see coming. The one that usually looks all wrong for us and that destroys any lingering ideals we clung to about what love is supposed to be. This is the love that comes so easy it doesn’t seem possible. It’s the kind where the connection can’t be explained and knocks us off our feet because we never planned for it.

This is the love where we come together with someone and it just fits—there aren’t any ideal expectations about how each person should be acting, nor is there pressure to become someone other than we are.

We are just simply accepted for who we are already—and it shakes to our core … It’s the love that just feels right.

I do not know if this is true or not but I choose to believe it is. I have been in love twice before; the first love looked right and I really wished the second love was right. I am now ready for my Prince Harry. Just waiting on my friends to set me up on a power blind date as well. Lol. I want a real life Jack Pearson. I want the romance of the century.