Spoiler alert: your love life is not a Nicholas Sparks classic.
1. The Notebook
Noah asks Allie out with a grand, romantic gesture that’s impossible to refuse.
Real life
A guy shows you he’s interested in you by drunkenly grinding up on you at a frat party.
2. The Notebook
Noah and Allie’s first date is a movie (totally normal)… but then they go dancing in the street and basically fall in love instantly.
Real life
You and a guy have a “first date” in a dining hall. You eat questionable meat loaf and text other people the entire time.
Related: 17 College Women Get Real About The Lack of ‘Old-Fashioned Dating’ On Campus
3. The Notebook
Allie and Noah’s first kiss is straight steamy. No first kiss has ever gone that well.
Real life
Your last kiss was with that cute guy from your calc class (you think?) at the bar. It was a little sloppy, but it still counts, right?
4. The Notebook
Noah writes Allie a letter. Every. Single. Day. For a year.
Real life
The guy you’ve been hooking up with finally responds to your text from yesterday… at 2 a.m.
5. The Notebook
For Noah and Allie, fights last about 3.2 seconds and are immediately resolved with kisses.
Real life
A fight with your boyfriend usually ends with you ugly-crying and the silent treatment. For three days.
6. The Notebook
Noah says cute, overly romantic things, all the time, forever and ever.
Real life
The last time a guy said something nice to you was when he told you your shoe was untied. It was super thoughtful.
7. The Notebook
When Noah and Allie get intimate (you know the scene), it’s passionate, in the perfect setting and completely un-awkward in every way.
Real life
Seriously hooking up means squeaky dorm-room beds, paper-thin walls and that awkward conversation about condoms. Oh, and then your roommate walks in.
8. The Notebook
Noah fixes up an entire house for Allie, just because. And then he takes her on a romantic boat ride through a pond of swans. SWANS.
Real life
One time, a guy bought you a drink, flirted with you all night, asked for your number and then never contacted you again.
Basically, The Notebook is the most romantic thing that’s happened to our generation, and no real romance can ever compare.
Probably because our boyfriends aren’t Ryan Gosling.