Romantic comedies tend to have a bit of a reputation, you know. They’re always branded as the type of movies that endorse awful life decisions, especially if these decisions are romantic. And, okay, we won’t argue with that. Sometimes these movies really are awful.
But here’s the thing — we take more than just the bad out of these films. See, sometimes, we actually learn valuable life lessons.
Before you roll your eyes, bear with us. We have six of these lessons laid down here.
1. We need to learn true balance
This should be pretty obvious by now, but everyone needs a work/study-life-romance balance. If you pay too much attention to any one aspect and ignore everything else, you will end up with one colossal mess — and that’s exactly what rom-coms show us!
Say what you want about the stories, but the visual cautionary tales are the best way to show-and-tell.
2. Sometimes two good people make one bad relationship
You know that type of movie romance when even though the two leads are great, their relationship just won’t work out? Yeah, so this one makes sense and makes for an interesting real life lesson.
Sometimes you don’t have to be toxic or “bad” to have a bad relationship — it’s as simple as that. It can happen that people just don’t mesh well together.
3. Go with the flow — sometimes, you NEED it
A well-favored trope in romantic comedies is the trope where there’s a workaholic female character who learns how to “chill out” and “take it easy”. You know why it’s that common?
Because some people really do need to know how to chill and actually be spontaneous. Nothing is worth being always wound up.
4. Communication is kinda a big deal
Because this is literally the number one problem in every rom-com ever, we have all internalized the importance of communication and internalized it well.
True, some people got the wrong idea and still get into petty misunderstandings. But for everyone else, well, it’s a pretty big life lesson.
5. Some people are just time-wasters…let them go
Ah, yes. Another time-honored Rom-Com Tradition that is very clear when one of the Typical Bad Boys come in. Here’s the thing — some people will just waste your time, even if they don’t mean to. And it will keep happening, even if they have “hearts of gold”.
6. If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen
Don’t force things to happen with someone when they’re clearly not going that way. Just don’t. Try to read the situation correctly and anyway, if something is meant to happen, it will happen. Relationships don’t come with a force-start button, you know.
