As we learn in life, the endings we hope for – the “fairytale” endings – are few and far between. Even happy endings are rarely, if ever, perfect. But that doesn’t keep those suffering from illnesses and disorders for holding out hope that everything will one day be okay.
Therapist Angie Kupper has taken a literal interpretation of a fairytale ending for a calendar shoot she arranged that provides storybook contexts for people suffering from very real diseases and disorders. The project is called “Finding Your Fairytale,”
While the reality may seem quite distant from the desired outcome, it’s Kupper’s intent that this photo series and the accompanying documentary in development teach people who have emerged from struggles that happiness is attainable, even if it seems out of reach.
A catalyst for the project is Kupper’s relationship with her own mother, who committed suicide when her daughter was 17 years old. Put in the context of the project, she says about her mom, "She no longer saw that magic or that hope for herself, and she ended her story.”
Here are just a few of the photos in the calendar that put real, common struggles into fantastic, familiar contexts.
Julie Mundt suffers from OCD, which causes her to clean compulsively:
This photo features Angie herself, who struggles with narcolepsy, as Sleeping Beauty:
Dr. Charles Raison, a psychiatrist at the University of Wisconsin, applauds the novel and accessible look at the dark side of recovery. "We're such word-dominated animals that we think everything can be put into words, but as you visualize yourself in some sort of fairy tale, you're engaging other senses around you," he says.
While the stories shared don’t play out like the end of a fairytale, Kupper’s message through the project is one of unwavering hope and solidarity. She says that although there will be struggles and setbacks, "You can come out the other side and have your own happily ever after."
For many of the subjects in this calendar, holding hope and faith in that statement might serve as a powerful treatment towards getting them to that ending.
Robin Williams performs for military men and women as part of a United Service Organization (USO) show on board Camp Phoenix in December 2007
Gif of Robin Williams via 
A woman conducts a online color testCanva
A selection of color swatchesCanva
A young boy takes a color examCanva
Will your current friends still be with you after seven years?
Professor shares how many years a friendship must last before it'll become lifelong
Think of your best friend. How long have you known them? Growing up, children make friends and say they’ll be best friends forever. That’s where “BFF” came from, for crying out loud. But is the concept of the lifelong friend real? If so, how many years of friendship will have to bloom before a friendship goes the distance? Well, a Dutch study may have the answer to that last question.
Sociologist Gerald Mollenhorst and his team in the Netherlands did extensive research on friendships and made some interesting findings in his surveys and studies. Mollenhorst found that over half of your friendships will “shed” within seven years. However, the relationships that go past the seven-year mark tend to last. This led to the prevailing theory that most friendships lasting more than seven years would endure throughout a person’s lifetime.
In Mollenhorst’s findings, lifelong friendships seem to come down to one thing: reciprocal effort. The primary reason so many friendships form and fade within seven-year cycles has much to do with a person’s ages and life stages. A lot of people lose touch with elementary and high school friends because so many leave home to attend college. Work friends change when someone gets promoted or finds a better job in a different state. Some friends get married and have children, reducing one-on-one time together, and thus a friendship fades. It’s easy to lose friends, but naturally harder to keep them when you’re no longer in proximity.
Some people on Reddit even wonder if lifelong friendships are actually real or just a romanticized thought nowadays. However, older commenters showed that lifelong friendship is still possible:
“I met my friend on the first day of kindergarten. Maybe not the very first day, but within the first week. We were texting each other stupid memes just yesterday. This year we’ll both celebrate our 58th birthdays.”
“My oldest friend and I met when she was just 5 and I was 9. Next-door neighbors. We're now both over 60 and still talk weekly and visit at least twice a year.”
“I’m 55. I’ve just spent a weekend with friends I met 24 and 32 years ago respectively. I’m also still in touch with my penpal in the States. I was 15 when we started writing to each other.”
“My friends (3 of them) go back to my college days in my 20’s that I still talk to a minimum of once a week. I'm in my early 60s now.”
“We ebb and flow. Sometimes many years will pass as we go through different things and phases. Nobody gets buttsore if we aren’t in touch all the time. In our 50s we don’t try and argue or be petty like we did before. But I love them. I don’t need a weekly lunch to know that. I could make a call right now if I needed something. Same with them.”
Maintaining a friendship for life is never guaranteed, but there are ways, psychotherapists say, that can make a friendship last. It’s not easy, but for a friendship to last, both participants need to make room for patience and place greater weight on their similarities than on the differences that may develop over time. Along with that, it’s helpful to be tolerant of large distances and gaps of time between visits, too. It’s not easy, and it requires both people involved to be equally invested to keep the friendship alive and from becoming stagnant.
As tough as it sounds, it is still possible. You may be a fortunate person who can name several friends you’ve kept for over seven years or over seventy years. But if you’re not, every new friendship you make has the same chance and potential of being lifelong.