My chosen career (and the fact that it’s 2016) means I’m often immersed in talks of big data, analytics, A/B/ testing, etc., etc. Unfortunately I never took the time to test out my marketing data learnings in my dating life. Well, maybe not unfortunately in a grander sense because things worked out okay for me, but if I had applied my professional data skills to my online dating experiments, they may have turned out differently. Or at the very least I could have gleaned some insights more interesting than “men on Christian dating sites are bizarre.”
Lessons in Self Reflection
I watched Titanic the other night for the first time in years (don’t judge) and it spurred some thinking about the ever-popular damsel in distress love theme. Of all the ridiculous lies perpetuated by mythological Hollywood storylines the idea that a person can find their true selves in their soul mate seems counterintuitive to me. Even though Jack acknowledged that Rose could really only save herself, the entire plot suggests otherwise.
For The Women in My Life
If anything good has come out of the ups and downs of my romantic road, it would be the friendships that have been strengthened during the pitfalls along this path. No matter where I am in my life I have some truly amazing friends who will always be there to pick me up, dust me off and tell me he never deserved me. I have both male and female friends who fulfill this role but for the purposes of this blog my focus is going to be on those of the female persuasion.
The Men We Want to Marry
Gloria Steinem once observed, “Some of us are becoming the men we wanted to marry.” This is something I’ve discovered and embraced recently. Beyond the idea of feminism and the independent woman, this can go a long way toward ensuring your happiness as an individual. I noticed that when a relationship ended I often missed not only the person but the things that they brought to the relationship that I lacked in both characteristics and interests as well.
What's The Rush?
’ve noticed recently that, in all the conversations I’ve had with people who have been married for anywhere between 10 to 50 years, I’ve never heard a single one of them say they wish they had gotten married earlier. I have, however, heard a number of these people say they wish they hadn’t gotten married so soon. These sentiments have come from people who are extremely happy in their marriage, those who are miserable and those who are somewhere in between. Many express regrets.