Is romance dead?

Today I was cleaning out my room, de-cluttering and rummaging though bags and boxes that haven't been opened in years, clearing out old junk when I came across a letter from an ex. It was a love letter. Written in scruffy writing on a used scrap of old paper which had part of a shopping list on the other side from a boy I now barely speak to and despite that, it had meant something to me and I had kept it all this time.


The letter was ancient and I haven't recieved a love letter since. I've had more texts than my phone can hold, phonecalls which used up all my minutes, facebook conversations that went on for days, even metions on twitter, but no letters...and it suddenly hit me, is romance dead?


With Valentine's day looming, I can't help but think that we have lost all our romantic morals. You can buy a card in asda for 7p I kid you not. Despite this, the pages of history are littered with great love stories. Romeo and Juliet died for love. They couldn't bear the thought of living without one another so they took their own lives. I understand it's a story but a man wrote it, Shakespeare put his thoughts to paper and they were beautiful. And it wasn't just those starry eyed teens who caught our attention: Lord Bryon wrote poems, spilling his heart many a time; Anthony and Cleopatra were famous lovers; the story of Heathcliff and Cathy is beyond magically hauting and King Edward the VIII even abdicted the throne in order to marry the woman he loved! 


Nowadays there is barely a trace of romance left in the world it seems. I don't mean buying cheap flowers or going to a fancy restaurant or giving a tacky 'I <3 u' teddy. I mean real old-school romance. In the words of Olive Penderghast: "Whatever happened to chivalry? Does it only exist in 80's movies? I want John Cusack holding a boombox outside my window. I wanna ride off on a lawnmower with Patrick Dempsey. I want Jake from Sixteen Candles waiting outside the church for me. I want Judd Nelson thrusting his fist into the air because he knows he got me. Just once I want my life to be like an 80's movie."


So next time you're with your significant other, just keep in mind that it wouldn't kill you to be a little more romantic and not just on Valentine's day.