How I Met Your Mother: Have You Met Ted Mosby?

I don’t know if many of you caught my last How I Met Your Mother post. It was a bit scatter-brained and I feel like it deserved a better post. I was reminded of that today when I watched quite a few episodes from the first season. I know that sit-coms are kind of known for being fairly vapid and not real helpful in actuality, but I always grow from watching this show.

Being in love is a concept purely in the movies for me. I want it, probably more deeply than anything in the world. But I want it right, with the right man, and in the right time. So my dating life has been rather sparse. That which I have experienced, I have tended to nip in the bud to avoid eventually hurting a guy who sees more with me than I can envision with him. When I am having a tough time holding out for that one guy who will make all this waiting worth it, I am comforted by Ted Mosby’s outlook. I completely understand his frustration and his desire. In a list of my favorite TV couples, Lily and Marshall would make Top 5 easily. They’re just so much the model of what I would want in a relationship. That perfect mix of silly and serious, independence and togetherness, passion and cutesiness is what I hope for. But, like Ted, I know what it’s like to look around and see Lilys and Marshalls finding each other early in life and simply meshing perfectly without any sort of grueling wait, while you stand clapping, smiling on the sidelines, genuinely excited for their love, but wishing, deeply wishing that you had a love of your own. I’ve even experienced semi-Robins and Barneys– my almost-boyfriends getting together with close friends, and it being awkward, but okay, because  we couldn’t have worked together anways… right?

But despite it all, no matter what crazy relationshippy obstacle is thrown his way, no matter how low to the ground he falls, disillusioned by life, Ted Mosby always gets back up again. He brings others hope with his persistent optimistic, romantic, occasionally nearly delusional vision of that one girl who will be worth all the searching, all the waiting and even all the failing. Ted doesn’t sit on his butt and just wait for her to come into his life, he always thinks about her, he knows she’s on her way. And, at the end of it all, he looks back and knows exactly what, in 8 years of wanting to meet the love his life, led to them finally meeting and falling in love.

Sure, maybe, aside from his romantic notions, he has a bit of A.D.D. when it comes to women. In the first season, wanting Robin so deeply, so strongly. But when she can’t make it to the wedding and he meets Victoria, not being able to get Victoria out of his mind (though to his credit, she was very mysterious and memorable). That seemed a little fast to fall for a different girl. Although, us single people, planning for that future spouse to walk into our lives, tend also toward distraction. Perhaps we’re picky, since it seems, everyone and their dog is in a relationship! But, at the end of it all, we have held out for the real thing. And How I Met Your Mother always helps me to believe that he’s out there, and he’s thinking of me too. Like me, maybe he’s spurring on the almost-loves, or maybe he’s falling hard for everything that moves… whoever and however he is, someday, we’ll meet. I’ll be his and he’ll be mine. We’ll have kids and he will be a wonderful father. We’ll love each other deeply because knowing we should be together, it’ll be the easiest thing in the world and it will make the hard work of relationships worth it.