Mine and everyone in America’s apparently.
If you have known me for awhile then you know I have the entertainment taste of a 15 year old (Chuck Bass rocks my world!) With that said, I must admit, this past month’s Monday-night Bachelor habit was thrust upon me by my loving husband (don’t even try to deny it babe!) So I have been diligently tuning in to see the charming and sensitive Jason Mesnick woo 25 women in hopes of finding his one true love.
By now, if you have turned on your TV or visited a chat room or social network in the past 24 hours, you know that this most recent bachelor took a most shocking turn and the country is up in arms.
On the final show, Jason had to choose between Molly, a lovely blond who clearly rocked his world with the most captivating eyes (which he commented about on almost every date) and bubbly brunette Melissa whose energy, kindness and loving way had her as our frontrunner (after Stephanie who Jeff had picked out for Jason from day one.)
On that final show Jason had to say goodbye to one girl and commit to the other and this was a problem as he had stated repeatedly, he was clearly in love with two women.
As I have watched Jason over the previous weeks I had come to have a deep appreciation for his leveled approach, his kindness and his respect for the women. I loved how he was moved to tears repeatedly as he had to say goodbye to fabulous woman after fabulous women as he narrowed his search.
As the finale drew near we saw the previews of Jason out on the deck of his New Zealand residence, sobbing. Every time I saw that clip my heart went out to him – it really was beautiful to see that level of emotion -and I came to appreciate him even more.
And then came the moment we had all been waiting for.
As I watched the action real-time, after much suspense we came to find that these tears of heartbreak and devastation were the after-effects of saying goodbye to Molly so that he could be with Melissa. In my head a quiet warning sounded “This young man does not know what he wants right now.”
In the very next scene I was proven wrong as Jason asked Melissa to marry him. Saying he could finally say to her what he had wanted to all along, “I love you, I love you, I love you.”
Flash forward to “After the final rose” in a turn of events so shocking that they had to shoot without a studio audience, Jason unceremoniously ends his engagement with Melissa and asks Molly to give him another chance.
I will not lie. There was much booing and yelling at the television when the news broke in our household and Jason’s stock went down about 3000 points.
Now the country is up in arms, everyone has an opinion and I figured the Coach Joelle would weigh in for good measure.
1) This is not real life. It is a TV show and I get that there is a certain amount of pressure to end the show with a ring on someone’s finger. I can understand how this could have a person making decisions that they may not have made in the “real world.”
2) I acknowledge Jason for having the courage to be so darn unpopular and go back on his proposal before the marriage actually happened. Lesser men would have tried to stick it out a few years before the impending divorce.
3) Melissa’s comment on how she had one sacred time to say yes to spending the rest of her life with someone and that he took that away from her, is totally valid and really makes Jason seem like a super cad! That is where every heart in the room broke. She went for it, she trusted and he blew that trust out of the water with dynamite. Gentlemen, learn from Jason’s folly, engagements are not to be taken lightly.
4) There are rumors going around about Molly, her personal life and her morals and while I guess having your laundry aired is one of the unfortunate costs of public exposure today, I truly hope that people think twice before spreading unfounded rumors about any of these people. It is not something that makes the world a better place.
5) I have not been living their lives so I do not know what happened in their 6 weeks of engagement that caused Jason to throw in the towel, but the issue is that it appears neither did bride-to-be, Melissa. This leaves me to deduce that he is either lost/confused/fickle, to propose to a girl one day and within a little over a month decide she is not it, and/or, he needs to work on his communication if he wants this relationship to have a chance (I cannot fathom how his finance could get dumped on national television with no idea what happened.)
6) I wish Jason and Molly great happiness. I hope we see them in married bliss alongside Trista and Ryan in future episodes. They have some major PR issues to work through and I still get this impression that Jason is not quite ready for the level of commitment he thinks he wants (or at least not with anyone currently in his life) but of course this is a judgment based on the finely edited story of a reality television show, so who knows.
Tune in May 18th when 3rd runner up, Gillian takes on a gaggle of men as the new bachelorette (see you on the couch!)
Funny how some of the most watched TV out there is just real life on camera. The human experience is an amazing thing. No wonder I love what I do.
With Love,
Joelle
