Vanderpump Brought the Feels
I was late to the Vanderpump game but quickly got sucked into all of its reality show goodness. Coincidentally I started watching during the show’s most pivotal season where a favorite couple crumbled from the age-old saga of a double life and affair. To add insult to injury, the affair involved a best friend. If you aren’t familiar with this storyline and trash tv isn’t your thing, a quick Google or social media search will catch you right up.
It wasn’t really the details of their story that struck me because let’s be honest, affairs are so unoriginal. Wish they weren’t so common, wish you didn’t know someone who’s gone through it, wish you hadn’t gone through it yourself, wish they didn’t have the power to destroy a life instantaneously. What struck me more than the affair itself was how watching strangers on TV can bring me right back to feelings that are ten-plus years old.
I guess that’s what happens when something affects your life so deeply. Many parts move on, but ever fully? I’m not sure. I couldn’t believe how quickly the moment I saw her friends rally around when the news hit, I could remember the people who surrounded me. The faces, expressions, and ugly tears when those closest to me found out. I saw her rage-filled anger over betrayal from the one she loved more than anything, the one who was never supposed to leave. The skin and bones her body took on from the shock and lack of appetite that suddenly consumed her. The life she loved was abruptly gone.
Watching every part unfold on national tv felt like I may as well have been viewing scenes of my own life ten years back. I say this not to sound like a downer, discounting the healing, growth, and hope that has happened, but simply to share how deeply we are meant to connect with one another. How I could feel every emotion of Ariana Madix through a TV screen reminded me of how our shared experiences are meant for each other.
Our stories are what help those in the thick of it forge through. I wouldn’t wish the deep betrayal of an affair upon anyone, but happy to stand WITH you in solidarity. Even a reality TV show can remind us, we belong to each other.