Love of My Life

While Mark is the true love of my life I have another that I knew long before him.  This person taught me what love is.  This person has been there for me through all of my breakups and through all of my relationships.  I still love this person to the nth degree.  Before you all start calling me a cheater I will tell you that I have never officially met this person although I feel like this person knows me better than anyone and I feel like I know this person better than most of my closest friends.  This person is a woman who has been dead long before I was born.

Her name is Jane Austen.  She is my favorite author and I don't know if you all know this but she has written me into almost all of her books.  I am Elizabeth Bennet, Elenor Dashwood, Anne Elliot, and Emma Woodhouse all rolled into one.  I love everything about her books and have dreamed of falling into one of her books.  Her stories of love are enchanting but it's not just the romantic in me that loves her.  I love the way she describes all her characters and have met people that are exactly like them which leads me to her amazing ability to see the world around her.  The people and the choices they make and the results of their choices still exist which makes the novels timeless but in some ways sad considering she wrote some of those stories as things that needed to change in life.  I find it so depressing that she never married and although all of her heroines received happy endings with their loves, she and her sister did not.

My love affair first started when I was home sick (or faking sick, I can't remember that part) and I was watching movies.  My family had recently discovered the $.99 area of our local video rental store (that's right kids, they used to be stores and not just vending machines).  The movies that were that price were all these old time movies.  My mom started renting the ones she loved while growing up and my sisters fell in love with them too.  I found the old black and white version of Pride and Prejudice.  I remember my little sister Kate watching this story on the kids show Wishbone.  I loved it.  So I moved onto the 70's version of P&P then the Colin Firth version that was 6 videos long that we had to pay $2.99 for each tape to see, that was a big commitment.  Well I eventually moved onto renting the newest Gweneth Paltrow movie.  The very night I rented it my parents rented the older version of Emma.  I watched just a bit of it thinking that it was another one of lame movies my parents got (Mr. Knightly was bold and I tend to judge movies based on how cute the guy is).  I honestly had no clue that the movie they rented and the one I got for my friends and I to watch was the same story.  I also realized that it was the same story as the movie Clueless.  From there I put together the pieces of Jane Austen.  I started to pursue her works as my guild.  She had made two great stories; maybe the others would be also.  Sense and Sensibility came next.  My brother bought me the book of all her books and so I finally started reading the literature.  I have since read all her books and seen every one of her books turned to movie.  I own every version of Pride and Prejudice including the LDS and the Bollywood version.  P&P is my very favorite and Elizabeth is my favorite heroin.  Mr. Darcy was once all I could dream about just like Jane from Austenland and it may have given me a similar problem as Jane's in the book had I not met Mark.  Mark is no Mr. Darcy, especially since from the moment I met him I thought him to be a great example of a modern gentlemen.  The more I learn about Mark the more I am convinced he is just like Mr. Knightly and I in turn find myself to be so much like Emma.  Mark being so calm and collective and logical and me being so not those things.  One person’s weakness is the others strength and so we help each other become better people all round.

Jane Austin believed in true love.  She believed in good people getting a happy ending.  She believed that money and class, although and obstacle at times, not a reason to prevent two people from being in love.  She believed in strong minded women who should be appreciated and respected.  She believed in kindness and charity.  I just admire her forward thinking and creativity so much.  I wanted to take this time to thank her and wish her happy birthday.  Jane Austin you are the creator of the love of my life.