Love Hard
From agricultural society to industrial society, everything has changed, such as the thing we eat, the clothing we wear, the job we do, and the places we live. It has even changed humans’ relationships and habits. Even if we want to make friends or to find a boyfriend or a girlfriend, now dating site or pen pal site are such good ideas. However, do you know how easy or how hard is it to make friends online? I had had this experience of searching friends who was willing to talk to me in English online. When I browsed those photos and read their introductions, I had difficulty choosing from one of them. Finally, I gave it up. I was thinking that maybe waiting for a person who wanted to talk to me was a better choice. Finding a person who was willing to practice speaking in English with me was not easy, not to mention finding a boyfriend or a girlfriend online. Then what would you consider first? Appearance, age, jobs, hobbies, personalities, or race. To find someone to love, according to our preferences, most of us decide whether to pursue or not based on the physical appearance we see at the first. After that, we start to discover more about the person’s personalities. So does Natalie who was a character in the film. But, if the person who you are chatting with uses another person’s photo, I don’t think we can accept it. Nevertheless, it is what happened to Natalie.
Natalie was a writer. The reason why she got this job was because she always shared the men she matched on the dating app and then it turned out to meet a variety of weird and strange guys in person. As a matter of fact, she was sick of it and she got frustrated. Obviously, the reality appeared cruel. All readers liked reading this kind of funny story to make their days. Her boss was savage because of what he said, “This is a reason why you can keep this job.” When she was disappointed, her colleague encouraged her to extend the areas that she looked for a person to love. “Let’s see what happened next. Try to click other areas.” Her colleague said.
After getting off work, Natalie was exhausted to sit on the sofa. She was enjoying listening to relaxing music while browsing men’s photos on the dating app. She was a fighter. No matter how badly her boss said to her or how ridiculous all readers thought about those love stories, she still kept looking for her love. Speaking of her personality, I do like it and I think that is something we should learn from her. Most of us always care about what others say and then it can affect our emotion in a day. However, in the workplace, it is impossible that everything can go smooth for us at all times.
While she was typing, all of a sudden, she saw a man’s photograph and she thought that he looked handsome. She also read his personal introduction. It was great to know that he was a sporty man, which liked hiking and traveling around the world. She clicked the button“Match.”
Happy chatting, talking and sharing. Everything seems to go smooth. There was nothing happened until Josh texted her” I wish you were here with me for Christmas.” She was a little bit surprised when reading it. However, Natalie thought that they did spend time chatting and talking on the phone for several months. As the time went by, she got feeling for him. She made up her mind to fight for love, so it might be time to visit him. With encouragement from her colleague, she decided to fly across the county to visit him. Therefore, Natalie wanted to surprise him and she didn’t tell him her plan.
A mowan, Josh’s mother, came to open the door, seeing a hot girl standing in front of her. “Merry Christmas, May I help you?” said the woman. “Hi, I am Natalie and I am Josh’s girlfriend. I am here to see him.” said Natalie. Josh’s mother, father, and granny were surprised to see her and they were thinking why Josh could have a hot girlfriend. The real Josh was coming upstairs from the basement. Natalie was astonished at the person standing in front of her because he was not the one she saw on the photo at all, having gold hair, 180 centimeters tall with a handsome face. The real Josh was Asian with black hair and small eyes and he was short. At that moment, Natalie was too shocked to speak, so she just turned around and went out. She found out she had been catfished. I wonder what you will do if it is what happened to you?
I would like to share my own experience. Although the experience was not like the experience Josh had, I totally understand what Josh felt. I used to have this experience when I was in senior high school. Male classmates walked away in front me when they saw my face. At that time, I had a lot of pimples on the face and the skin was not smooth. After graduating from school, I had my first boyfriend. His friend asked him why he fell in love with me. “Did you not care about her skin?” asked his friend. It sounded hurt. It seemed like a girl or a boy who doesn't have a pretty face is not worth loving. I also asked some of my male friends about some situations and then what they would do? For example, the situation Natalie had or now a lot of girls were great at putting on a makeup. The problem was that these girls didn’t let their boyfriends see their real faces and one day, these boys might find out the faces were not as pretty as they were on makeup. Some of them replied that it depended on the real situation and some of them said they hoped that the appearance could reach their standard, but most of them said it was cheating.
That’s why Natalie was so angry that she went away and then went into a bar. Josh went after her because he needed to take the blame. Sitting inside, Natalie was surprised to see the person opening the bar door. It was the one that she thought she had been chatting with for several months. He was Tag, Josh’s friend. Therefore, Josh made a plan, he wanted Natalie to pretend to be his girlfriend and he would help her get to know Tag. “It is a deal.” said Natalie. Because Josh’s family members didn’t know their plan, it made the plot very interesting. With Josh helping, she started dating Tag. However, she also realized Tag’s hobbies were not nearly as the same as hers. She was a vegetarian. The opposite, Tag was a beef eater. He liked rock climbing and also was a rock-climbing teacher, but Natalie was afraid of climbing. He loved the book Walden written by Thoreau, but she saw the writer as an asshole. However, he hoped his future girlfriend had something in common, so Natalie had no choice but to pretend who he liked. While Natalie was dating Tag, Josh’s family members were enthusiastic about inviting her to take part in some family’s activities as well.
About Josh’s family, all members liked doing something about participating in a lot of activities or watching movie together. These were shown on the photos at the fireplace. Josh’s grandfather used to pretend a Santa Claus stomping on the top of the roof to surprise his grandchildren. Unluckily, he fell off and broke his arm, but he told his grandchildren that he protected their gifts from bad elves. I could feel that this was warm and lovely family. About Josh, although he didn’t look attractive, he was a smart, funny, kind and thoughtful man with a warm heart. Since he was young, his friends and his older brother had always been in the spotlight. He was unable to be a main role in the group and in the family. His older brother had always been teasing him why he couldn’t have a girlfriend. This was the reason why he wanted Natalie to be his girlfriend until Christmas ended. After that, Natalie could fly back to LA due to work.
Christmas was a big day and there was an another meaning for this family. Every time Christmas arrived, they always thought of grandfather, which passed away many years ago. Thanks to Christmas’s atmosphere, Josh sang Merry Christmas song with his family members in the community. Josh’s older brother became spotlight again. Josh decided to steal the attention back. Josh showed the ring to Natalie and asked, “Will you marry me?” He knelt on the ground to wait for an answer. Natalie hesitated to answer, but she still said, “Yes” at the end when she saw everybody looking forward to hearing the answer from her. After Josh and Natalie went home, they fought like cats and dogs. The plot became not only interesting, but also complicated. Nevertheless, they still kept the plan. There was nothing changed until their family threw an engagement party without telling them.
One day, they went out together after joining another family get-together. Josh’s granny went the wrong way on purpose for organizing a party without telling them. Whether how Josh called her, she pretended not to hear him. All of a sudden, granny walked into a restaurant where Tag’s father managed. “Surprise” said all guests. Josh and Natalie knew they could no longer hide the truth from everybody. Before Josh’s father was going to give all guests a speech, she rushed to stop him. It was time to tell the truth even if she felt awkward.
"When I knew I got catfished, I was furious. But I want to find my perfect match.
I accept Josh’s deal because he said he would help me to get to know Tag.” said Natalie.
“Do you climb?” asked Tag.
“No” said Natalie.
“What about Thoreau, a writer?” asked Tag.
“I hate him.” said Natalie
“You got mad at Josh for catfishing you and then you do the exact same thing to me.” said Tag.
After all the guests left and Josh’s family went home, Natalie had already left his home and left him a note. Whether the holidays were bad or good, she still needed to go back to work, which she had to handed over her writing to her boss. She was typing and thinking how to attract her readers by this disaster dating experience. While she was writing, she also reflected on herself. She realized that she kept focusing on how Josh lied to her, but she realized that she didn’t need to pretend to be a person she was not and how she was warmly accepted by his family, and the important was that she got along well with Josh and his family.
Sometimes, when we are with some people, we always care what we need or what we want instead of noticing other things. Then it might be easy for us to miss our happiness. I could not say that physical appearance is not important. After all, we might see this person’s face in our whole lives if we want to marry him or her. However, when we get older, we might realize that getting along with the person is more important one day. When Natalie realized who was her perfect match, she headed back to Josh’s home to ask if she could have one chance again.
Happy ending.