Why ‘To All the Boys: Always and Forever’ Has Me Searching For My Own Peter Kavinsky

This movie put me in the feels... I'll be honest.

"To All the Boys: Always and Forever" is the perfect way to feel all the emotions, without having to leave the comfort of your own bed. (Yes that means you can eat out of the pint like nobody's watching.)

We are all longing for that emotional connection right now. I mean, all this online stuff has me wondering when I will get to casually run into my first crush again, or find my own Peter Kavinsky.

Instead of dancing the night away at prom, I will be channeling my inner Lara Jean and stress baking cupcakes at 2 a.m.

Senior year of high school is iconic. Prom, college admissions, graduation, and lasts with all of your closest friends. Lara Jean, Peter, and the rest of their group get to experience this altogether, in person, which feels so foreign to me now.

The threequel does an amazing job of taking the viewer through heartbreak, first love, and discovery, all through the eyes of the peak of youth. Watching movies is a getaway for everyone right now, especially romantic comedies that can transport us to our high school years.

Lara Jean says at the very end of the film, "life is beautiful and messy and never goes according to plan". This is exactly what I have learned through this pandemic. None of us expected to be staying in watching movies alone on a Friday night, but here we are. Although this is the case, it does not mean that no good will come from it. A challenge though is to see that good can come from times like this.

Throughout this movie, I was dreaming of my future "Peter Kavinsky moments". We all want that "boom box over the head and hand in the back pocket kind of love" that Lara Jean talks about. From splitting strawberry pancakes at the diner, to dancing in the moonlight. All with the end goal that one day my very own Peter Kavinsky will be standing waiting for me with a love letter.

Someone that I can "be 3,000 miles away from and still never let him go". Especially when I feel 3,000 miles from everyone right now.

"To All the Boys: Always and Forever" gave me that two-hour window to picture being spun around in a flowy pink dress and laughing the night away.

Although imagining this love is beautiful, love is not always easy, just like what we are experiencing now.

Peter and Lara Jean come to a breaking point in their relationship where they need to decide what is most important to them. Distance is scary and can seem like the end. They were stuck between a rock and a hard place, and my heart was torn watching them. Yes, I even cried. Lara Jean says, "real love is choosing each other through all of it, every single day."

This emotional experience left me feeling a lack of hope, until Peter comes back and says,"I will do whatever it takes to make this work because that is what you do when you love someone".

And although this pandemic has felt like forever, in the grand scheme of things, it will not be, even when it feels like it. Just like when Lara Jean and Peter feel like the distance at college will be forever. Like Peter says, "and besides, if we are going to be together forever, then four years of college isn't such a big deal." This gave me hope that I will have my "Peter Kavinsky moments", it just might not be when I expected.

I recommend this movie as a way to escape reality and imagine your own "Peter Kavinsky moments", because I know I am missing them right now.

This is my version of writing a love letter, but unlike Lara Jean, I want you all to read it.