Week 2 Story: Carter and Pygmalion

Carter Searching for a Real Girl by Pixabay

Once upon a time there was a young man named Carter. He was studying at college for an engineering degree, and he was very smart. He wasn't able to get much interaction with girls on a regular basis because he was so busy, but he was very fond of Instagram. 

Although he following a lot of girls, he wasn't impressed by them. To him, all they seemed to care about was shallow things like how many likes they got or if their "caption game was strong". He didn't want to date a "Basic Betch", he wanted a "Real Girl" that was "chill" and "cool with just hanging out instead of partying every night". 

One day, after months of aimlessly scrolling through his Instagram feed, he saw her. She was tagged in a photo with a girl he matched with on Tinder eight months ago, and she was beautiful. 

He instinctively clicked on her profile, and for the next four hours he analyzed every single photo she had posted since the 9th grade. "She is everything I have ever wanted!!" Carter thought gleefully. She was majoring in engineering just like him. She had long brown hair. She posted more pictures of her dogs than of herself, and all of her friends were hot too. There was not a single dog filter selfie in sight. Carter KNEW he had hit the jackpot. 

After careful deliberation, he decided he had to follow her. He checked the time, 7:43PM. That seemed like a perfect time, not late enough to be weird but not early enough that she would be too busy studying to see it. He felt a jolt of thrill once her username popped up on his screen saying she had followed him back. 

He crafted the perfect DM, and after hours of anguish over the particular wording, he finally mustered the courage to send it. 

"Hey." 

By some miracle, she responded. She said to her friends it was his "sexy arms and good job potential" that made her answer, but mainly she was just having a panic attack that she was "already 22 and no one loves her." 

Carter asked her on a date but let her choose the location. He knew she was in class at the time, so he had all day to imagine what she is like. He went back to her profile, studying her closely. Her captions were clever and witty, "She must tell some great jokes" he thought.  She had the perfect amount of followers for him to deduce she wasn't a crazy person but also wasn't paying for followers either. 

With each photo he looked at, he started filling in more and more blanks about her. She was absolutely perfect. Just by her carefully curated and professionally edited photos she posted he could CLEARLY TELL she was going to be his future wife. He started thinking about rings, zooming in on her fingers to make sure they weren't too thick. Every trait he wanted in a girl, he just KNEW she had to have. He built her up on such a high pedestal in his mind, it is a wonder the air still had adequate oxygen where he placed her. It truly was love at first Instagram stalk. He was obsessed, and he felt so close to her. He felt like they didn't even need to talk, he already knew her so well.

Finally she messaged him back. His heart started beating faster as he tapped to view the message, 37 minutes after he got it so it wouldn't be weird of course. 

"OMG let's get Starbucks. I have GOT to try the new Pink Drink!!"

He felt himself gag a little at the thought of the White Girl infested coffeeshop. For the first time in the full two days he had been following her, he felt a twinge of doubt. He quickly pushed it to the back of his mind, he KNEW she was still his Dream Girl. He locked down a time, they would meet for a casual lunch date between class. He wanted to make sure she knew how chill he was, after all. 

He sat at the table waiting, and he turned as he heard the door open. There she was. A bright light surrounded her outline, and he swore he heard angels singing in the distance. She was stunning, in her Nike shorts and extra large T-shirt with Birkenstocks. "Wait, what?" he thought, while the sound of a record scratch played in his head. As she sat down and they started to talk, he looked at her closely. She was definitely hot, but she definitely used Instagram filters to her advantage. She wasn't dressed in the way he imagined her to dress, and every word she said was followed by "like" or "literally". He started to get annoyed that she apparently was NOT exactly how he made her up to be in his head. 

He tuned back into the conversation they were having, and as the conversation continued he started to realize something. Although she might not be perfect for him in every single way, she was definitely smart. She might not be as of unique a dresser as he had hoped, but it was also a Wednesday. He started to realize she was completely different than the girl he made her out to be, but he wanted to get to know the girl she was. 

Three years later, he found himself holding her hand and looking at her, thinking how glad he was that she is who she is and not the girl he dreamed about. 

The story I got inspiration from was the story of Pygmalion. He wasn't impressed with the girls around him, so he made a statue of his Dream Girl that he fawned over constantly. One day he asked the gods to make her real. Venus granted his wish and made her a Real Girl, much to Pygmalion's joy. I wanted to make the story more modern, and I think it is a common issue in our culture to see someone on social media and fantasize about their "perfect life". In my story, Carter saw a picture of his supposed Dream Girl, and turned her into something she wasn't in his mind. I wanted to point out the flaws of this thinking, but still give the story a happy ending like in the original. No person will ever truly be perfect for you, but if you take the time to know someone, and listen to who they are, you might come to find what you thought you wanted isn't what you want at all. 

Bibliography 

"Metamorphosis: Pygmalion" from Ovid's Metamorphoses translated by Tony Kline.

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