One day about a month ago, I was at the gym, working it out on an elliptical, watching TLC’s “Say Yes To The Dress” on my personal monitor. It’s a reality show that follows an NYC bridal dress shop; specifically, the quest of the brides-to-be to find The Most Perfect-est Dress Everrrr, and the quest of the employees to close sales. It’s not usually the kind of show I would watch, but there was nothing else on that piqued my interest.
In this episode, a dress-seeker took some time to tell America how her fiancĂ© proposed to her, and how it was everything she had ever wanted, and how happy she was. I’m sure this interview happens on every episode. As the show went to commercial break, and as I pumped my legs and arms in ardent pursuit of bodily perfection in time for my trips to Brazil and Europe, I lapsed into a hypothetical daydream of the future – what if one day, I was proposed to? An image of a faceless man appeared in my head, and he presented me with a ring and asked me to marry him.
I nearly had a tearful panic attack on the elliptical. I nearly ran with fright from the gym, no goal in sight.