Sex and the City: A Revelation

Is truth stranger than fiction? I've heard that assessment a few times over the years, but I never thought it would apply to me in any context. That is, until I saw Sex and the City the day it opened. It was surreal. Sitting in the movie theater, I felt like I was having a visit with four friends I hadn't kept in touch with in a few years and nothing much had changed. Samantha is still as neurotic (and horny) as ever, Carrie is still getting caught up in romance and big ideas, Charlotte is still the dreamer who wants everyone to be happy and Miranda (who I've been told is me with red hair) is still the cynic waiting for the other shoe to drop. How strange that these are not my friends, but they are still very much a part of my life and my thought processes.

I didn’t realize it until a few days ago, but several of my blog entries read a little like Sex and the City columns. No, it's not deliberate. If anything, I'm tempted to believe Carrie couldn't resist biting a little of my style. ;-) The show began airing on HBO when I was 16, at a time in my life when I had the exact same questions and doubts about relationships and men in general that the women on the show were experiencing 20 years into my personal future.

Truth be told, and as illustrated so well by the show and movie, those doubts and fears about personal relations never really go away. They just manifest into some new worry or complication or another set of questions with each new situation we get into. Sometimes, everything works out. But sometimes…well it comes off as a comedy-drama that doesn't feel all that funny when it's happening to you. I think we've all had those days.

More than anything, I just wanted to acknowledge how important that show was to me when I was attempting to get my bearings and trying to do the one thing no woman in history has done—get men completely figured out by age 21. It's a good thing I'm a recovered hopeless romantic (read: realist) or I'd still be attempting the impossible.

Here's to the group who gave women everywhere solace in realizing that we're all in the same boat, and helping us see the fun, humor and love in the journey itself.