So I have to admit that I am a little bit obsessed with The Bachelorette this season. I fell into it, I like to think, accidentally when I was on the road so often with Hijas last fall and watched week after week of Brad Womack as The Batchelor in hotel rooms across America. I watched it like I watch scary movies, a grimace across my mouth, my hand guarding my face while trying to take in every last bit that I could see between my fingers. In the end, Brad Womack DID THE UNTHINKABLE in reality tv parlance. He let both girls go. And one of those women is this season’s Bachelorette so I just had to catch what happens next for her. Does she find her husband like she wants? Will they really stay together after the last rose ceremony? Will they get hitched– and join America’s favorite reality tv family– Trista and Ryan from the first Bachelorette- in forver bliss?
And just in case we are wondering why more reality tv romances don’t work out, a study in Communication Reports reveals that people who are concerned about their image are less happy in their relationships. I am sure it comes as no surprise to anyone that fixating on the impressions one is making keeps you from revealing who you truly are- thus leading to a superficial relationship. We can all see how that plays out on national television, but it almost becomes, I bet, a chicken and the egg phemomenon in everyday life– if I could just know this was the real thing, I would show him/her who I really am. But you can’t have the confidence of knowing that you are in the midst of what could be the real thing without taking a risk in the first place.
