Introducing A Woman of Grace: Jacquelyn Grace "Our Newest Contributor"

What's good Team Good Girl? I can't say enough about my newest contributor Jacquelyn Grace. I wrote about her in my latest #WOMENWHOSLAY post, and that doesn't even cover it. She is kind, tender, patient, sweet, and unafraid to tell her story of love. She also attended my latest shopping event at The Limited in Greenbrier Mall. She was so helpful to the customers and she totally understands #ironsharpensiron. Thank You Jacqueline for joining the team.

Good Girl Chronicles is going to work hard to make sure people hear your story, because we're in the business of storytelling. 


Jacquelyn Grace has an amazing blog called 'The Art In Myself' and we at Good Girl Chronicles will help her craft that message there as well. Here is the first of what I hope will be many amazing stories from Jacquelyn Grace.

Jacqueline's First Story: Romeo & Juilet

Can you really fall in love in one day? YES. 

90% of the world is probably quoting Elsa from Frozen saying that you can’t marry someone you just met, but…well…

(Whoops spoiler alert, but the story of Romeo & Juliet is public domain, right?)

Think about it. Romeo and Juliet are teenagers. Remember when you were a teenager and fell in love for the first time? Remember how it felt so good being with this person and you felt like this feeling would last forever? Left to your own devices, you probably WOULD have eloped (thanks to different state laws, there is an age of consent nowadays that prevents young, impulsive souls from eloping).

Now, some of you are saying, “Well, remember when that feeling went away? Remember how the divorce rate in the US has risen to roughly 50%?” YES. I DO. I remember my first love. I was 16. We fell hard, and we fell fast. Within a couple of weeks, we professed our love to each other and proclaimed we wanted to be with each other forever.

We felt like we were Romeo and Juliet. Our love was forbidden. My parents thought I was too young to have a boyfriend, and his parents were afraid having a girlfriend would ruin his grades.

Love conquers all, we told ourselves. Our love is too strong, we told each other. “Why don’t we run away?” we joked with each other. Too bad we didn’t have our own cars. Or enough money to be on our own. Or common sense. I fantasized about a day when we would be together with nobody to tell us no. Or where to go. Or say we’re only dreaming.

Ok I’m done with the Aladdin reference.

Anyway, it wasn’t too long before we fell out of love with each other. Well, actually, he fell out of love with me,and I was heartbroken and inconsolable, and THEN, in typical teenager fashion, he asked me to take him back three days afterwards and I told him no. We’ve moved on to falling truly, madly, deeply for other significant others since then. 

So yeah, as much as I do remember the giddiness and impulsiveness of my teenage romance, I also remember how quickly it all ended, which also made me wonder if Romeo and Juliet would have eventually fallen out of love if they lived longer. Or lived, period.

I like to think that they would have loved each other forever. Let’s put our cynicism aside and remember that in real life, there are couples who are in love until their dying day. They do exist. They’re not unicorns or anomalies.

And I’m not going to go into a speech about choosing love above all, putting love first, love is hard work, blah blah blah because we’ve heard it all.

Instead, I’m going to be honest and say that I tried to stop myself from crying when I saw the opera version of this play. I knew the story so I didn’t expect tears to run down my face, but I couldn’t help it.

“Why was I crying?” I asked myself. Because I remembered the feeling of falling in love, being in love. I wondered if I could ever love someone so much that I’d rather die than be without them. My cynical heart had taught itself to move on and get on with functioning in life. I had taught myself not to need anyone that badly lest I get hurt–and THAT was the real tragedy…that my heart hasn’t been as open as Romeo’s or Juliet’s since my teenage years.

I remember arguing with my parents. “Why can’t you approve of him? Don’t you remember what it’s like to be in love?”

Have we become too bitter? Too wise?

How about we just let people be in love? Love on, world. Don’t let anyone, especially yourself, stop you from letting your heart be open. Perhaps if we allow ourselves to believe again in how magical love can be, we can find the kind of love, faithfulness and devotion that Romeo and Juliet had…except without the poison and daggers. 

Yeah, ain’t nobody got time for that.

What a great story. When I first read it I felt so many similarities to some of my loves in high school. Girl you've got the gift! Thank you for sharpening me doll. You are my Grace and I want to be your Hope! #letsslay #womenwhoslay #teamgoodgirlapproved #ironsharpensiron