For as long as I can remember, I have always been an idealist. Whenever I do those personality quizzes and they ask questions that would reveal whether you’re either an idealist or realist, I almost always subconsciously select the dreamer and idealist choice.
As someone who is prone to daydreaming and romanticizing life, I didn’t necessarily choose this. Rather, I think it is because of how I am influenced and what I surround myself with that I am more of an idealist person. During middle school, I was engrossed in reading and immersing myself into that fantasy and imaginative realm that novels offered. There, my hopeless romantic, idealist tendencies grew more and more as I lived vicariously through the dream and ideal life that fictional characters experienced; it elicited so much warmth and joy knowing that if I romanticized my life the way they do, I would enjoy living life just a tad bit more each day.
Being an idealist also means being a hopeless romantic — at least for me — and it can come with a cost. Daydreaming about a world and life in which things are almost always going well for me, can set unrealistic expectations on my relationships with others; it can often even be harmful as it can come at the expense of not communicating it with my friends or partner and it leads to conflict. In the very early stages of wanting a relationship, I always secretly hoped that it would be like the cheesy rom coms in books or kdramas where the girl drops her books by her locker and a very attractive male walks by to help her pick up her books while holding intense eye contact. This inevitably leads to automatic love at first sight and as unrealistic as it was, it was something I desperately hoped to experience one day. But, that moment never came because of course, that is far too unrealistic and personally, falling in love just by the appearance of someone seems a bit too shallow.
Though my idealistic expectations and standards have been slightly lowered to be more rational, I still allow myself to embrace those thoughts and daydreams — it makes life more enjoyable when I can romanticize everything and feel optimistic about the way things turn out. Since picking up reading more consistently again, I have been strongly influenced by romance books to feel hopeful yet also hopelessly romantic whenever I am out in public — secretly praying that I can experience one of those romantic encounters from books.
Lately, I have been seeing how social media is also strongly advocating for people to start romanticizing life, primarily so we can fall in love with life in and of itself. I think there is so much beauty and joy in that because you not only get to do things in a manner that is rewarding, but you can begin to appreciate the little things in life that make it so beautiful to be in love with. Romanticizing my life as an idealist has allowed me to count my blessings and feel grateful for the small things like laughing with an old friend you haven’t seen in a while or eating your favorite comfort food while watching The Office or even smiling at the sky when you see a radiant sunset blooming among the clouds. I wouldn’t, for a second, wish I was anything different than an idealist. It makes me welcome life with a comforting and peaceful embrace.