WISDOM
Why are we still so sold on sacrifice, asks Harriet Minter
LIFE AS I KNOW IT
Like every other Millennial, I have been glued to Netflix’s adaptation of the David Nicholls’ novel One Day. If you haven’t seen it or read the book, then the premise is that we see the same two characters, Emma and Dexter, on the same day each year, following their lives and their ‘will they, won’t they’ relationship, from university and into their 30s. The book was a global bestseller back at the end of the noughties, and the TV version is a beautiful nostalgia-fest for anyone growing up at that time. For me, it was also a stark reminder of how much my view on relationships has changed.
Without giving too much away for those of you who haven’t yet watched it, Emma is the clever, grounded Northerner who falls for posh, outwardly-confident-butinwardly-a-mess playboy Dexter. They both fancy each other, but never quite get it together. Instead, Emma pines for Dex for a good decade, and both of them wreck their other relationships because nothing feels quite as good as the connection they have with each other.
When I first read the book way back in 2009, I was at the end of my 20s, and I believed in the Em and Dex love story. I was desperate for them to get together, for Dex to realise just how much he needed Em, and for her to be the woman he changed for. But, watching the show in my
