I love romantic comedies and I read sappy love stories ferociously. But the more I watch these movies and read these books, the more I realize they aren’t reality.

I’ve never met someone at a bar and three days later told them I love them. I’ve never gone on a vacation and gotten married before I even went home. And I don’t know anyone who has.

So why does Hollywood insist on making such movies? And why do authors insist on being so optimistic in their novels? Is it because they have to or else every woman sitting in the movie theater will walk out feeling unfulfilled, hating the movie she just watched? Oh, and because it sells.

Can you imagine reading a book and reaching the last page, and no one who you thought was going to fall in love even ended up together? How many times do we start watching a love story and think in the back of our heads that maybe this is just another “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and the main characters won’t end up happily ever after?

I think falling in love like they do in the movies would be exciting, but can love like that last? After the final scenes, we are supposed to just assume the two people are happy and going to be in love forever. If only love and life were that simple.

Even though I know this “head-over-heels, fall in love in days” love is not possible, I still find myself daydreaming about it. I still want to be blindsided by love and swept off my feet.

Yet the more I wish for it, the less likely it seems that it will happen.

I have never been in love and I am actually starting to think that it may never happen – or at least not now, when I am young enough to enjoy it. I know people say all the time that everyone falls in love, but what happens when you are not prepared for it? Is it true, as said in a “Sex and the City” episode, that you have to truly be open to love for it to happen to you?

I have a friend who decided that after years of random hook-ups and a few steady relationships, she would give up trying to fall in love. Less than a week later she began dating a guy who she has since been with for almost 15 months.

Why is it fair that even those who do not want to be in relationships end up falling in love while I’m here hoping for both and come up empty-handed?

As I wrote this column I watched “The Holiday,” a perfect example of the ultimate fall in love in two weeks formula. As the end of the movie drew near and I saw both couples so happy to be with one another and in love, I caught myself feeling a bit sad and, for the millionth time in my life, wished I could be as lucky as the actors.

– Contributed by a News staff writer.