Thoughts on remarriage

I try not to double blog but this one really applies for this blog but I also posted to my SP blog... I have to tell you when I see or hear about a fellow divorcee being happy, I’m extra thrilled for them. Especially when it comes to having a successful subsequent relationship after a divorce. I can only speak to my own experience but I have to think they have had to face similar obstacles which makes their happiness extra special to me. You’re made to feel like you are a failure, you messed up, you got your chance at happily ever after and you blew it. You obviously can’t be married otherwise you still would be. You’re made to feel like you are less than, flawed in some way because you were part of a marriage that failed. I guess it’s something about making that promise of forever, the signing of that legal contract and having it fail despite your best efforts, that makes it worse than if a long term relationship breaks up. Often times you feel like there isn’t life after divorce, divorce is rock bottom, you rarely think of the life you might have afterward. It’s certainly not something you look forward to. For me it was never something I wanted or ever thought I would go through. It was never an option I really ever considered and it was forced upon me regardless of how I felt on the matter. He cheated and he didn’t want me anymore. Decision made, apparently that easily. And regardless of the how’s or why’s, you are still judged for that one fact. People hear you’re divorced and all kinds of negative things swarm through their minds. It is negative and I’m not necessarily an advocate for it but sometimes it happens in spite of what you wanted or how hard you tried. But the aftermath does not have to devastate you forever. You can be happy after a divorce and thrive in spite of it. Divorce doesn’t have to be something that defines you or defines who you are in any relationship that happens in the future. You messed up but that isn’t the end of the story. Unless you make it so, it doesn’t rule out a happily ever after in your future. When I see the divorcee happy and living life and doing what they always wanted to do, it makes me proud of them for taking something that is such an isolating and lonely experience and learning from it, finding a beautiful life after all that. Instead of dwelling on the ugliness they come out the other side maybe a little scarred but better than before. I found out the other day that one of my friends (that was finalizing her divorce as I was starting mine) is engaged. I knew she had a serious boyfriend that she lived with and was really happy with him. We had conversations about it, how she wanted the same for me, that I too would find someone who would make my whole world change and I could be happy in a relationship too. Back then I was perfectly content being alone and happy but then I thought about it and what if there was someone out there that I could be happy in a relationship too. I wondered what that could be like for me. She gave me hope for something I never really could acknowledge that I wanted. And now that I find myself 8 months into a relationship with someone who seems so oddly perfect for me and makes me happier than I ever imagined someone else could make me, I realize that I was defining relationships on what I had before, not what I deserved or what was possible. I see now that not all guys are the same, that there are ones out there that will show you how much you mean to them, make your life better, make you happy and maybe, just maybe, won’t break your heart. I was just beyond excited for her that she found her happily ever after and I know part of that has to do with the fact that she’s been through hell too. I know the heartache divorce imparts on the individual. And how at the time that pain feels so permanent. You wonder how you can ever come back and feel normal again. And to be happy? It seems almost out of the question. No matter how amicable the divorce may be there still are scars and feelings of inadequacy left behind. And if the divorce isn’t amicable (like mine) the wounds can be so much deeper and so much more debilitating. So for me to have that person who endured so much, who came out the other side of something so life-changing, and is happy and smiling. It just makes me really happy for them finally getting what they deserve. They took their life in their hands and they found a path that led them to where they belong. I still don’t know where my life will take me and if I’ll end up marrying the boyfriend but I’m hopeful that I can have a successful relationship, that maybe I have found someone who thinks I’m worth fighting for and wants this as much as I do. Which is completely crazy to even think of. I know it’s fairly new, I know a lot could happen, but I’m so happy with him, where I’m at, and it’s become easy for me to think of forever with him. And I’ve come really far to be able to say that. My divorce was not a good experience. It’s not something you ever hope for as a married person and it’s not something you want for your marriage. But I know that the fact that I was divorced does not doom me forever. It doesn’t mean I can’t be happily married some day. It doesn’t make me less than and to have someone who sees me as something so wonderful and so beautiful is beyond words. It’s sad to me that I wasted so much of my life with someone who thought so little of me when someone this amazing was out there waiting for me. It almost makes the struggle worth it.

I'm just winging it

Has it really been since May that I have checked in here? I suppose it has been a busy summer between work, my internship and spending time with friends and family. So please forgive me. One of my goals was to blog more and that just has not happened. Obviously. I have spent the better part of the summer in a weird emotional funk and have slowly been coming out of it. I think a lot of my emotions have been involved in this new relationship and trying to figure out where my life is going and how the new BF will fit into that. It’s been a lot of figuring out who is really there for me and making places in my life for people who actually have my best interest at heart. At 30, I thought I’d have these lessons learned by now but I suppose learning is a life long endeavor. I’m crazy in love with the new BF and have never felt this way before about anyone in my life and that is wonderful. It’s so amazing to feel so head over heels with such an awesome person and to have those feelings reciprocated. I feel like the luckiest girl in the world. But even though I was in a long term relationship and married, I struggle with the fact I have no idea what it means to be a partner in a good, healthy relationship. I find myself feeling so insecure in what I’m doing and falling back on old patterns that I know are nothing but destructive and hurtful. I’m conscious of it so that has got to help but it’s annoying. The new BF is amazingly patient and sweet with me so I know things will turn out well but it doesn’t help that I’m always second guessing myself. Always questioning myself and not trusting myself to make the right/healthy decision. I’ve started to focus more on the positives I bring into a relationship, focus on what is going on between us (not on how I read into things based on my past) and just hope for the best. I suppose there is a lot in life like that. Things you actually don’t have any idea of what you are doing but stumbling your way through. We are all doing that to one extent or the other in a lot of areas of our lives. Trying different things out and hoping for the best outcome. In December I’ll graduate from school and then who knows where my life will take me. I hope where ever it is, he will be along with the ride. But regardless of how any of this turns out I know that I’m strong, lovable, and will make it through what ever life has to throw at me. Hopefully with a cute boy at my side :)

Rebuilding and summer plans

Rebuilding your life is an interesting process. When it is in pieces around you, you have no idea how or what you can piece it back together to be. I think for me it was more about leaving those pieces alone and starting new. While for a while I wanted to pretend none of it even happened, I realize soon enough the need to deal with it and accept what happened but not let it define who I was or my future. I know there are times I still struggle, especially with the anger but I know I’m really far ahead of where I could be in the grand scheme of things. In one of my classes we learned about divorce and the impact on children, how it was best to handle it, that kind of thing and they said it takes two years to get used to all the changes divorce causes. My two years will be in September and I have to tell you every day, every month I love where my life is and where it is going. It’s really not that long ago but I feel like a totally different person. I have rebuilt myself and my life into something so different from who I was. It’s an amazing accomplishment if you think about it. From the rubble you come through and thrive. Not everyone can do that and get stuck in that really dark place. I’m not gonna lie, I’m a little nervous about this summer. Since the divorce started I’ve been in school. I did drop down to one class one semester but other then that I’ve been plugging away. It’s a little unnerving to think about all the time I’m going to have on my hands and all the things I can do. I’m hoping that I have dealt enough with all the stuff that I can just enjoy my summer with the new bf and everything will super great. I guess I shouldn’t really hope because I know I have done what I can and if anything comes up I will be able to deal with it. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t cross my mind though. One of the big things that has become glaringly clear to me is how much control I have in my life, even in uncontrollable situations. You have to be able to take what parts you can control and focus there. While I had no control over what was done to me, I had control over what part I played in it and what I did with the pieces after. I can be the victim or I can be my own hero. I prefer to be my own hero and make my story what I want it to be. I’m embarrassed that I spent so long in a place where I didn’t realize that, where I didn’t realize my own worth, where I stayed with someone like him and let him treat me the way he did. I’m embarrassed that he is my ex-husband as opposed to some dude I dated and when I figured out what a tool he was I let him go. But that is all in my past and I can’t change that. So you deal with the emotions as they arise and move on. The one emotion I have a hard time with is the anger. I’m so much happier without him and so much happier then I thought was possible with the new bf. But I’m angry about what he did to me. I’m angry at him for not seeing how amazing I was and all that I did do for him and not giving me enough respect to end things the way they deserved. I’m angry with myself for not seeing where this was going and ending it so much sooner. I’m angry that I made it ok for him to treat me the way he did and that I clung on to something that was so long gone or maybe that I never really had with him. I’m angry that he has done so many awful things to me and yet somehow karma has not kicked him in the nuts yet. I’m angry that I feel so angry toward him. I don’t want him to take up residence in my life or my mind at all. Having the anger seems like its keeping him in my life and I hate that. I wish awful things on him and the girl he cheated on me with and that really isn’t me. I’m a nice person, I try to be nice to everyone, I’m compassionate and kind. It’s not in my nature to hate or wish terrible things on someone. But I do on them. And I know how much of a waste of time it is. Can’t I just hope something terrible happens to them and I can never think of them again? How do I resolve the anger without forgiving or without saying it was ok? How do you get over the anger when they haven’t been punished for what they did? How do they get to destroy someone’s life and they get to be happy and ok? That just doesn’t seem fair. And maybe that is where it all lies. Life isn’t fair. I know that so well but yet we expect it to be. I guess we just have to do the best we can with what we have and hope that things turn out as we deserve. Sometimes it doesn’t but then sometimes it does. I think about the crazy amount of love I feel for the bf and I question why am I so lucky to have found that. But when I really think about the crap I’ve been through it seems almost more that maybe that is the universe throwing me a bone. Like “you have been so good for so long and got crapped on all along the way. We see how hard you are trying and here is something absolutely beautiful for your life”. Maybe it’s a reward for always trying to do the right thing, for always trying to be a good person. Finally things are going your way because you earned it, you deserve it. And maybe I need to stop questioning it. So this summer I have a lot of things I want to do and one of things I need to work through is my anger. I have to let it go and release all the ugliness that comes with it. I know that but when you have every right to feel that angry it’s hard to let it go. After all the suffering, it’s hard to just let it go. But I will. I’m determined and you see what happens when I set my mind to things. Beautiful things happen.

Thoughts about relationship demise

I’ve come across a few things in the last few weeks that I feel like I need to reflect on. So bare with me.

The first was from my friend while we went for a morning walk in Mexico. She prefaced it with, ‘I don’t want to offend you, or upset you or anything but my husband and I were talking and we were wondering why did he leave you for that? We just don’t understand the reasoning behind it’.
I struggled with that too, for a really long time and I don’t know if it became clear to me until the conversation that followed. The girl he cheated on me with is larger then I am. She is actually probably the size I was when we got married, my heaviest, my rock bottom as far as the weight thing goes. She was who I was before I decided I wanted more of my life, before I grew up. Of course he would find her appealing, he was looking for an immature idiot like himself and when I stopped being that I wasn’t appealing to him anymore. But we were married and we were stuck.
After we got married I realized I didn’t want to live my life standing still. I wanted more. I wanted to do all the things I dreamed of but was too afraid to act on. I changed and for him that wasn’t a good thing. I think the way I lived my life was hard for him. He liked being lazy, sitting around, doing nothing. One day I asked him what he wanted from his life to which he replied with, ‘I don’t know’. I asked do you just want to work, drink and brew beer and that’s it? He replied with yeah pretty much. I didn’t understand how he didn’t have dreams, how he didn’t want to make more of his life then just to merely exist. It was very apparent that we were two totally different people. He could not understand my yearning for more, my need to make my life something special, my want to help others. The empathetic, caring girl married a self-centered, heartless boy. How could that ever work?
The girl he cheated on me with was similar in aspects to the old me (minus the self respect, integrity and conscious not to sleep with a married person). She made it ok for him to be who he was. He could be lazy and fat and not want more of his life. That is what he wanted and I couldn’t be that girl. He didn’t want to feel bad about his life and how he lived it. I’m not saying excusing what he did in any way because I will never be ok with it. I know I deserved more then that and I deserved him being an adult and ending our marriage in a more deserving way. But I think that is asking too much for him. He is far too immature to have handled it in any way then how he did. None of this should have been a surprise but since I lied to myself for so long, it was. He was exactly who he showed me he was; it just took me forever to see it. And I think there is something to understanding the whys behind it for your own piece of mind and to put yourself as ease that maybe you won’t make the same mistake in the future.

Second…“People don’t cheat if they are happy”
My teacher said it in class about divorce and co-parenting.
At first the comment made me defensive. It reminded me about Dr. Laura and how she tries to blame the woman for men cheating on them. Again I will repeat I did not deserve to be cheated on. I did not deserve him throwing me away like he did. I deserved more then that.
But to understand what happened to me I have to admit to myself that he wasn’t happy with me. I can’t say that I’m totally responsible for his unhappiness because I did try to make him happy but as unhappy as I was I couldn’t really do that. In a relationship isn’t that the point, for both partners to be happy? I know I wasn’t perfect but no one could say I didn’t try. And he sure as hell wasn’t trying to make me happy anymore either but after a while I stopped trying with him too. The thing is I wasn’t the person for him just as much as he wasn’t the person for me. We were not going to be able to make each other happy because we both wanted two totally different things. You cannot make a square peg fit into a round hole no matter how hard you try. And you can’t make that square peg change no matter how well your intentions are, no matter how much better it would make that square peg’s life. You keep trying to jam that peg in and in time you will just be frustrated and eventually stop trying. You shut down, you give up but what if you are legally bound to the hole or the peg? It makes giving up hard and scary and makes you stay in a situation you would have walked away from a long time ago.

I’m mature enough to realize that we weren’t the right people for one another and that is how it should have ended. Not inflicting more pain on one another. Unfortunately he will probably never really understand that and not that that matters because the results of his actions are the same. He intentionally broke my heart because he could and the fall out was mine to deal with. It doesn’t matter to him (or to his girlfriend) that he destroyed another person because he is too heartless to think of someone else even if he promised me he would never hurt me like that. Promises to people like that are just another lie they spew to get what they want at the time. Genuine, honest people have a hard time understanding that mentality. Anyways the main thing I’m trying to say is that I knew I wasn’t happy and would be crazy to think he was. But I didn’t realize he was as unhappy as I was. I didn’t realize how unfixable we were. I was completely delusional thinking I could fix it, that somehow it wasn’t yet beyond repair. I didn’t want to give up on him and I thought I was the one that was most miserable. I was the only one voicing it anyways. Every opportunity he had to say something he never did. I was blindsided by the cheating because I was in denial about how unhappy WE were. I only saw how unhappy I was.

Multicausality
I learned about this in my attempts to catch up with my readings for another class before my test on Thursday. The basic concept is that there are multiple causes that get people to where they are, requiring the need to get help from others. People with the same issue don’t get there in the same way, for the same reasons; there are lots of causes ending in the same result, say divorce or alcoholism. It’s hard to pinpoint how or why people get to where they are because they vary and for one person there are multiple causes. I thought about that in the context of the divorce. The cheating was the last incident that completely broke us, but we were mostly shattered before that whether I wanted to admit it or not. And not admitting it didn’t make it any less real. I was trying to hold us together and not very well. There were probably a million reasons and all complicated. I think it is important to identify as many as you can so you can resolve them and move on. I think it’s important to take responsibility for your part in the damage so you can be better next time. I think that people often like to blame the other person for their part in the demise but both parties contribute. As my teacher said, maybe not 50/50, sometimes even 90/10, but both have a part in it. I know where my blame lies. I have reflected a lot about my role as wife and where I played into our faults. I see where my shutting down and side stepping problems caused larger unresolved cracks. I realize now how my poor self esteem held me back and kept me in the role he wanted, but one I despised. But that is who I was when we met so I can’t blame him for wanting what I once was. He liked that insecure little girl, he didn’t want a woman who was self confident and loved herself. I changed. For me it was for the better no doubt, but for our relationship it wasn’t. I wasn’t honest with myself about what I needed. When I figured it out and tried to talk to him about it, he tried to push me back into my old self. And I shut down. I didn’t want the conflict when I tried to ‘fix’ things and nothing got better. No matter how much I wanted things better between us it didn’t change the fact that we were on different paths that were not compatible. I was not his mother and it was not for me to decide what was best for his life. But I hard time seeing that. He’s an adult and was hell bent on dragging himself down and there was nothing I could do to stop that (no matter how well intended I was). He was going to drink himself into a stupor and made it very clear I had no control over him and what he did. I was a wife, not a mother. I was married to an immature idiot who liked to drink too much, but I chose to marry him. I did it to myself in a sense. The point is that we all make decisions in life and you have to take responsibility for your part in that decision. Not everything happens to us. We are active participants in our lives. Things to happen to us but we do have the control over how react to those things. There are a lot of reasons why we are who we are and just as many reasons as to why our relationships are the way they are. It’s the sum of what two people bring to the table and there are some reasons to why we act the way we do in those interactions. Good and bad.

Since I find myself in love with a new fella I can’t help but want to resolve as many of my issues from my past as I can. Because I want the best relationship I can muster, I don’t want to set us back before we have a chance to become something beautiful. We both deserve the best we can put into this. I guess I wanted to reflect on this stuff because it had been floating around in my head and I wanted to make sense of it all. I wanted to share in case someone else was wrestling around with the same issues. It took me a year and a half to come to some of these conclusions so maybe I can save someone some time. Thanks for sticking through to all this.

YAY February!

Yay it’s my birthday month! While I’m slightly less enthused about this birthday (turning 30 and all) I love February and the birthday month! My family has lots of birthdays including my own and I love celebrating birthdays. It’s one of my favorite things in the world. I think everyone should get that one day to have the best time and celebrate that they are here and do whatever they want. While I’m still unsure about actually having a party myself I know I’ll make the day special.

I’m excited for being 30 in certain ways. I get to go to Mexico in March (so excited!!!!). I will finish classes and do my internship. I will graduate from Iowa State (again) and hopefully get a job that is fulfilling and I love (or at least like a lot). I’m sure there will be plenty of races scattered in there including my third half-marathon. There will be lots of fun times and I plan on enjoying them the best I can. All in all being 30 is most likely going to be awesome.

However there is definitely a part of me that is a bit despondent about turning 30. I am not where I thought I would be at 30. Granted back in the day I never had a clear picture of where my life was going to take me but this wasn’t it. As I was at the laundrymat last night doing laundry I couldn’t help but be angry. The place is scary and it’s so not a fun place for a girl to be by herself. I take homework so I can stay busy as I wait but it’s just not fun. I can’t help but think about how I was once a homeowner and why am I now doing laundry at a laundrymat? It’s some of those little things that you lose in a divorce that you don’t realize until later how that affects you. To feel so much like a grown up and in a totally different stage of your life then to go to a different stage in life yet you yourself haven’t really changed, it’s a strange feeling. To be 30, divorced, in school, and in the same life stage as a 22 year old kind of messes with your head. I’ve been 22 before, it wasn’t a place I necessarily wanted to go again.

But then I remember how much better this life is then what my life could have been had my life kept progressing in the way it was. Maybe this isn’t how I imagined 30 but I’m loving how it seems to be shaping up. I may never be the girl who is married and has babies but I might be and which ever way it turns out I’m ok with that. At this point I get to decide all that on my own terms and I know no matter where my life goes I will be happy. And that is one of the best feelings in the world to have. My life is moving in a forward motion and I’ll take that any day to standing still.

I may not have found my own path quite yet and I may still being getting used to this version of myself but I like her a lot. She knows what she wants, she’s not willing to settle for less, she is fearless and brave and strong. And when I really think about it, she is exactly who I wanted to be when I grew up.

Purging baggage?

I can’t help but think today of all days, when is appropriate to share the deep dark stuff you don’t want to tell your new partner. Today is a painful anniversary for me and I can’t help but wonder what/when you disclose those things. Let’s be honest that seems to always be a struggle for me. The new BF knows slightly about it but nothing too in depth and maybe that is enough. I’m sure like most other things you have to take the opportunity when it naturally arises but I also wonder when something like today rolls around, if that is an opportunity to disclose a bit more of some of those things. But how much is too much and how little is just enough? For someone who is an open book it is a struggle to find the balance. By nature I want to spill it all and let them take it and do with it what they will. But I realize that too much is not a good strategy either. What’s a girl (who wears her heart on her sleeve) to do?

We all have crap in our closet. Stuff we aren’t proud of, stuff we wished we could change, stuff that impacted us in dramatic way that we were never the same after, stuff we wished that hadn’t happened but did and now are a part of us. Does any of that past crap really matter now? Do you have to disclose all of that, some of that, just the parts that make you look good? I mean by nature it seems that is exactly what we want to do until we have them hooked, then you drop the bag of crazy on them. Oh wait, is that just me? But if you are going to be seriously with that other person, shouldn’t they know where you are coming from, what made you into the beautifully broken creature you are today? Shouldn’t they know the past that formed you into the person they just might fall in love with? Shouldn’t they know that before so they can make a knowledgeable decision about whether they want to be with you forever? I think I would want the same.

When you find yourself in a new relationship you are trying to portray yourself in the best light possible. You are this beautiful, perfect, amazing, easy going girl who is so much fun to be around and doesn’t have any baggage at all. You don’t have meltdowns, you don’t have bodily habits that you don’t want them to know about, you wear cute underwear all the time in case they might see them, you are as perfect of a version of yourself as you can get. Eventually though, that facade will crack and they will start seeing those not so perfect parts of you. Do I really need to help that along?

I’m very aware that I’m not perfect but I also know that I have some amazing qualities and I want to highlight those as much as possible. I don’t think that is deceitful or dishonest but I also know eventually he will see those not so perfect parts of me if he sticks around long enough. And that is probably where the real relationship begins in all honesty and I can’t make the inevitable not happen. I’m human after all. So that makes me think how much is too much and when is that too soon. If he isn’t going to be my one and only forever, does he need to know any of that stuff anyway? Maybe I need to wait until things progress into something more before I worry about any of this anyways. Could I be getting ahead of myself? That doesn’t sound like me at all *cough, cough*

For now I suppose all this is hypothetical because I don’t feel emotionally ready to disclose some of this deeply personal, painful stuff. Until the moment feels right I probably won’t even attempt to get into this crap and for now that is ok with me. Until then I can ponder if any of my past is really relevant in who I am today and if it even bares repeating. Plus I’m sure there will be plenty of time to let that stuff divulge over time. At least I hope so. It’s all about slowly unwrapping my brand of crazy as to not overwhelm the new dude :) Slow and steady, right?

Label me not...

Being 29, divorced and dating definitely has its challenges. Apparently a 29 year old divorcee (who may never want to have kids or get married again) isn’t what most guys’ picture in their mind as their ideal soul mate. Especially when you are trying to date in a college town and main pool of single guys are 22 years old. A lot of people have negative connotations of divorced people and it seems the younger I am and the younger guys I want to date, the more of an issue it is. Not saying I want to bag me a 22 year old but even guys around my age are freaked out by it. The guy I dated this summer was a prime example (he was 29 too). When I have talked to older guys (like mid 30’s) they have seemed to be more ok with it because a lot of them are either divorced or more familiar with it from people they know. I understand it is that whole unknown thing that probably freaks them out but I think people tend to think that if you are divorced somehow you are a failure at relationships. And if you don’t take the time to get to know me and my situation, I suppose that is all you will ever see. But much like other bad circumstances that doesn’t define who I am.

I have heard from a few people that I’m damaged goods. They always say that they mean that in the nicest way. I suppose I don’t take a huge offense to it because I know that I’m not exactly all in one piece. But much like that antique piece of furniture that has chunks of wood missing, it built character and I will never apologize for what others have done to me (or even what I have inflicted myself). I know through all my trials I have grown so much and I think that growing makes me a catch. I’m not the one wallowing in self pity or looking for pity or stuck in the woe is me and what life dealt me. I’m strong and thrived and my life is so much better then it has ever been.

Thankfully the new dude doesn’t seem to feel this way. We talked a bit more about it and I asked if he has an issue with me being divorced. He said point blank no and he knows I’m not this bitter, scorned divorced woman. That is doesn’t define me or define what kind of girlfriend I will be to him (if he lets me). Sure I hate the ex still and wish nothing but awful things on him (apparently someday this will change) but I’m not holding on to the anger or letting what he did still have a huge affect on my life. That is the beauty of all the processing I did, I don’t have to carry that hurt with me. I might have flashbacks but I have control over those things where I can bring myself back to the present and know that this guy is not the ex and I cannot judge him by the same standards. It’s hard for sure, but so worth it. And the fact that I’m ‘damaged’ doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Sure, I might be tender and a little jumpy but I’m perfectly fine. I think you have to view your damage differently if you don’t want it to be something that will hold you back. Yeah this stuff happened but in spite of it I am this happy, healthy, well adjusted (most of the time) person. That is incredibly desirable in a mate, I have to think. All I can be is me and if someone doesn’t like that because of some label they attach to me then I guess that person just isn’t my person then.

At this moment it doesn’t matter because I have a boy interested in me but I can’t help but think about how people view divorced individuals negatively and I think it’s sad. People have no idea the hell those people have been through and instead of judging them, maybe they could see the person for who they are, not what they have been through and have some friggen compassion. I suppose this goes with a lot of things (well within reason). I mean I’m not out to date a convicted child molester or drug addict and hope they change (I’m well aware that you have to accept someone as they are. You cannot hold on to hope that they will change. I wasted the last however many years of my life thinking that) but I’m just saying that mistakes happen. That doesn’t have to define someone for the rest of their life because they messed up once. If they were a certain way in the past and decided to change for the better, why would you pass that person up? I mean if a guy prefers slender girls and found out I was overweight once, I would hate for him to decide I was no longer a desirable option because of that.

Where is all this going? I guess in 15 different ways I’m trying to say don’t judge a book by its cover. You don’t know until you get to know someone what they have been through and when it comes to dating, what kind of partner they could be to you. I think so often we are focused on the things that don’t matter rather then the things that do. You know how everyone has the big old long lists of things they want in someone else, their ‘deal breakers’. The thing is you might have a ton of stuff in common but if there isn’t a spark of chemistry there, does any of that other stuff on the list matter? Then all you have is a friend and I have lots of those anyways. I think there are certainly deal breakers that are truly deal breakers but I think people tend to put emphasis on things that really shouldn’t be on the list of deal breakers. It’s like my mom when she asked me if the new dude is a doctor. She puts emphasis on things to me that don’t matter. Just because someone makes a lot of money or goes to church, does not make them a good person and someone who is going to treat me the way I want to be treated.