"Forget Prince Charming" Reader's Response

“Forget Prince Charming” Reader’s Response

In June Callwood’s Forget Prince Charming, the thesis tells us follow exactly what the title of her essay says to do and instead base a relationship with another person on compromise, integrity, respect and humor.

I can easily relate to her essay because when I was younger, I enjoyed watching love-related films and television shows. I was a person who immaturely believed that in this world, there was the “perfect guy” for me; he would be intelligent, extremely handsome, caring, trustworthy, compassionate and many other characteristics that a person would want in their partner. I dreamed of meeting this fictional character for the majority of my childhood. As I matured, I learned that I am not the “perfect girl”, everyone including myself have their flaws and have different ideal prince charmings.

Callwood’s essay supports my views on integrity and trust. When she says, “For the long haul, they want a truth speaker” I completely agree with this point because I have come across an untruthful person; I had a best friend in grade seven and this friendship only lasted for about two years because she would tell me lies and would never tell me the truth until I found out. I wanted our relationship to consist of full honesty but she continued to do the opposite. Ever since that experience, I have been fully committed to integrity and trust in all of my relationships with others. However, there could be many people in this world who do not rely on integrity as a factor of maintaining a long and healthy relationship.

I agree with all of Callwood’s main points, however I am not fully persuaded that these are all the characteristics in maintaining a bond with your partner. Since I am young, I have no experience with long term romantic relationships but I believe that you need to truly understand your needs which can come from experience. The lack of knowledge of yourself could have been the result of your previous relationship because you did not know what you wanted in a partner. I also believe that you need to have some common interests and use these similarities to enjoy doing activities together. By having at least a few things in common, you can learn more about each other. Like Callwood advised her granddaughters, my parents tell my siblings and I that communication is so important. My parents have preserved a loving marriage for around 30 years. They are not perfect. They do have arguments but it does not affect their marriage because they always communicate with each other. Without this key aspect, it could result in miscommunications, bigger arguments, and you will not learn from each other’s problems or mistakes.

Overall, I really enjoyed the contents of Callwood’s essay. Even though I feel that she missed a few major components, she did a good job of stating the important basics of a long-term relationship. I would recommend this essay to teenagers or young adults who are completely new to love relationships because I think they would learn a lot from Callwood’s descriptive and enjoyable advice.