I just want my life to be like a fairy tale.

We've all heard that at least once in our lives, and you may as well have said it before yourself. We want the romantic love story to follow a hard fought struggle or the happy ending with glowing sunshine ensuring our lives will forever be perfect. Not only have we wished for this lifestyle, but we've been told plenty of times that Fairy tales aren't reality and that we need to grow up. Sorry, honey, no glass slipper for you.

If we look at our lives in comparison to the story lines of our beloved fairy tales, you may be surprised that you are - wait for it - living a fairy tale life. Cinderella. Mulan. Aladdin. They may have all ended their stories in love and glory, but what else did they show beneath all of that? They showed that hard work pays off. They showed that you do not have to be perfect. They showed that it is okay to be afraid.

Each fairy tale character from Little Red Riding Hood to Pocahontas learned the important lesson of valuing themselves and not having to prove their self-worth to anyone. That poses the question how do you value yourself? By your money or how pretty or skinny you need to be? You may not think you are a prince or princess, but once you understand your self-worth you understand that you are in fact just that. We don't recognize our own qualities that make us each princesses and princes. Our uniqueness allows us to make our own fairy tale story. Are you confident like Jasmine who stood up to her father to live her own life rather than being married off? Do you thrive to learn like Belle using education to change the world and better yourself? Perhaps you are independent like Tiana who works hard to raise her own money to peruse her dreams.

Whether you realize it or not your life is a fairy tale. There may not be a fairy tale godmother who can wish you up a carriage, but you do have friends and family who are there to support you in all that you do. There are dragons in almost every fairy tale that disrupts our lives, but in the end, the dragon always gets slain whether it took one swing of the sword or multiple. You have to fight for what you want just like every character ever known has to. Nothing is handed to us, and we should be proud when we reach those accomplishments. Embrace that you may be in the beginning of a new fairy tale, right in the middle, or starting a new one. Once we accept how far we have come in our lives we can see that there was that magical fairy tale moment of glowing sunshine. Life itself is the most wonderful fairy tale.