Will Hannah Ever Get Married?

Will Hannah ever get married?

May 5, 2011

This morning, in my inbox:

I love your books, I can’t wait for the third one, just one question, will Hannah ever get married?

It was, as if, a plea for hope. And one I was very familiar with. I’d heard my friends lament over this question plenty, and as I stretched into my late twenties I found myself asking it too. It was actually one of the reasons why I decided to write Sex, Life, & Hannah in the first place.

When I wrote the first draft of what was to be Sex, Life & Hannah, back in 2004, the overlying moral of the story was self love. The original Hannah, like the new Hannah, and me, was going through a slew of men; sometimes purely for pleasure, but always seemingly on a quest, to find “The One”. You know, that one person that would ultimately complete her, fulfill her, and turn her life into everything she wanted it to be. Except a light bulb goes off towards the end of that manuscript:

Sitting on that airplane, heading back to L.A., I realized I would never be happy with anybody else until I was happy with myself. I would never be happy until I stopped being afraid of being by myself, or being single. And being single was not about whoring around every weekend, or jet setting to fabulous parties, or experimenting with opiates, and then marrying someone just because it felt like the right thing to do. Being single was about finding what truly fulfilled us so that we didn’t have to settle into what only comforted us.

I knew what I had to do. It was probably one of the hardest things I would ever do. I had to give him the ring back.

I still love that ending. It’s so powerful and liberating, and Hannah deciding on a new quest, one to find happiness on her own, questions our (my) traditional values, and was exactly the message I wanted to send at that time in my life. But what kind of author would I be if I gave it all away. The truth is, I’m not sure how the Sex, Life, & Hannah series will end. Will Hannah end up alone? Does self love necessarily mean finding yourself over finding a mate? Or will Hannah eventually find something that is the best of both worlds?

Be patient, and remember, the ending, is never as important as the journey.

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