Dating

I am so excited about this new blog, I am going into overdrive on what to write about first!! Coffee? Wine? Scarves? New restaurants? Friends? Dating? Omaha? Jobs? Babies? The list goes on!

Well, lets start with one of the new occurrences in my life. Dating. This concept is still quite foreign to me. It is not at all what I know or grew up around. People were boyfriend and girlfriend. You hung out a couple times and then it was "official." And if it ended up on Facebook, then you might as well start a board on Pinterest and begin planning your wedding. I look at my family and four of them married their high school sweetheart, 3 married their college sweetheart and the others are either dating seriously or recently engaged. My mother always insisted that I "never date anyone you wouldn't marry." As a teenager and high schooler, this made sense because so many couples I knew then, ended up married. As I got a little bit older, I felt the extreme pressure that type of mindset put on me. I have been blessed with wonderful male role models in my father and brothers. This led to high standards. Literally. I don't date short men. Its like an unspoken rule. Until of course, I inform them I have a 6 ft rule about dating guys. Hahaha! What can I say? Its a great ice breaker. My point is that I ended up waiting a while. I didn't really date in high school or even when I was in Portland, OR for nanny school. It wasn't until the first 9 months of my job in Colorado that I met my first official boyfriend. He was a great first boyfriend. I had so much fun with him and we learned a good deal from each other. After I moved, we tried long distance twice before calling it official quits. After breaking the boyfriend seal, I guess I was officially inducted into the dating world. Since then, I have found myself on numerous coffee dates, drinks at local bars or dinners. I keep feeling it is a big deal and dating should be this complicated process full of questions and suspense. However, what I have found is how simple it is. I love meeting new people. Talking and hearing where other people come from, their stories, experiences and opinions intrigue me. It is as if each person is writing their own book of life and I love being a part of someone's chapter. And I love remembering the impact they have had in mine.

Dating seems to be a touchy subject for many. Somewhere in our lives, we were told that if it doesn't work out on a date, it means there is something wrong with us and it is considered rejection. SO not the case. In meeting people over my life, I have found interactions are these weird combinations of not being personal to being one of the most intimate experiences humans go through. If you go out on a date and it doesn't work out with that person, it isn't personal. It means that one side or the other wasn't feeling it. And that is perfectly okay. It is actually a good thing, in my opinion. There have been a few dates that by the end of the night, I found myself looking forward to the second date already. Sometimes it happened, sometimes it didn't. If it didn't, sure I was bummed, but it only meant there was someone even better out there, not that I was this socially inept ogre. Or even better, I ended up with one more great guy friend. I truly cherish my male relationships. They are unique and special in their own way.

I guess what I am discovering is that the concept of dating isn't nearly as scary or sketchy as our society can make it out to be. I felt at first as if it was wrong or weird that I had been out on numerous dates with a few different guys. Then I realized, how else is this suppose to work? We aren't in school, or in the work place or in any other setting to get to know each other day in and day out, other than dating. Think back to all the people you may have dated in high school or college. You didn't just walk up to them and ask to hang out. You had the same classes or homeroom. Were both in the same after school club or met through your roomates' girlfriend or boyfriend. Out here in the world away from school and work, this is how you get to know people. As a nanny, I am absolutely in love with my little co workers, I just can't date them. :) You get my point. So for anyone who is a lonely soul out there wanting to date but are afraid to give it a try, I encourage you to go for it. Just remember that if it doesn't work out, it doesn't mean anything is wrong with you. It only means they like salmon and not tilapia. And if you really look at the other person, you will see you would rather have another type as well. So brave up, my friends! Life is too short to spend it alone.
  Cheers!