One year ago I had the following conversation with my wonderful grandma.
Grandma: "N..., have you ever tried online dating?"
ME: "Nope, I don't want to pay for it."
Grandma: "Oh, it isn't free?"
ME: "Not the good ones."
Grandma: "Well how much is it?"
ME (totally guessing): "Um like $15 a month?"
End of conversation. I didn't think anything of it until I received a letter in the mail from my sweet grandma. Enclosed was $15 and note that said, "I bet you know what this is for, don't you." It was pretty hilarious and I still smile when I think back to that day. Well finally after 2 weeks of deep thought, I decided to use Grandma's money for what it was intended. It just happened to be Feb 14th when I created a profile on an LDS singles website. I literally only used the site for probably a week. The day I signed up was the same day I met the man who would later break my heart. During our relationship, I kept thinking how grateful I was for my grandma sending me $15, as funny as it was. Without that, I would have never met the man I was planning to marry.
Well, even with my limited online dating experience I still have an opinion about it. How do you use plain text and a few photos to grab someone's attention over all the other girls that are probably on there? It seems that maybe a possible answer is to perhaps exaggerate. So that leads to the question how do you know what is true? That is the problem, you don't know what is true. All you can do is hope that that person is being as sincere as you are. I would imagine that it becomes frustrating.
Online dating sites have this feature where you can send "flirts" to people on the site. In my opinion, sending a flirt is like saying "hey I'm interested, but not enough to really get to know you unless you ask me something about me because I like to talk about me." In other words, it is lazy and not very genuine. I would know, because I was the best at sending flirts. Mostly because I didn't spend a lot of time on the site looking at profile's, I would just look at the ones that had already viewed my profile. So basically I hadn't put much effort towards the experience.
I guess my point would be that if you ever considered online dating, don't be the lazy flirter.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Sunday, January 13, 2013
2013 and the Number 13
I've been thinking about my blog and what to do with it for quite a while. I've now decided to continue to blog. It's more for myself regardless if anyone reads it or not. I also decided to put a sort of theme to it and that is my thoughts on everyday occurrences, mostly. So... Here is the first post of 2013!
I really love the number 13 and, well, lucky me I was born on the 13th. If people can get past this false superstition (most people have NO CLUE where it originated), then they can see the importance this number has had in religion and also in our country. I am going into this year with hope knowing that things can only get better. I have hopes of chasing my dreams, reaching my goals, and not letting anyone stand in the way of that.
Most people who read this know that I was engaged to be married and he called it off two months into the engagement. Looking back and seeing where I am now, I realize that before this experience I was way too willing to give up on what I, Natalie, wanted and what my dreams were. I had this idea that as long as we loved each other, we could chase his dreams and I'd be happy. In reality, I could have been happy because I usually am no matter what. I just didn't realize the regret that I would have had for the rest of my life. Regret is one of those things that I've tried to avoid ever since the regret of not pursuing a college softball career like I should have. As I begin again to chase my dreams, new and old, no man will ever have the power to tell me I can't. I've always been a strong, independent woman and this hurt has done nothing but made me stronger. The thing I think that this man finally figured out was that I wasn't going to change and become the woman he thought I should be. I wasn't sitting at home waiting for him and cooking him dinner all the time. I was doing things that I wanted to that were going to help me reach my goals. It wasn't until the sorrow and hurt had began to subside that I realized he had been trying to change me. As I chase my dreams, no man will ever have the power to change who I am.
3 months ago I moved to a new city. I have very few friends, know very few people, and am scared everyday. The thing this city has is opportunity. Opportunity to reach my goals and chase my dreams. I just hope that when opportunity knocks, I answer. My 2013 goals are:
1. To get a job I love. Yeah this is vague, and it is sort of on purpose. I have more specific goals pertaining to this that I have written down elsewhere.
2. Find a way to live in the city of my dreams, Park City.
3. Attend the temple once a week.
4. Conquer my fear of falling. This is a fear that keeps me from doing a lot of fun things in life. Sometimes it becomes quite irrational, so in the words of Bob Newhart, "STOP IT."
I recently went out on a couple dates, assuming that is what they were.. He did pay so I'm calling them dates. It is hard to explain the emotions and internal battle that I experienced. Let's just say that after date #3, I cried my whole drive home. I was struggling with not knowing what he was wanting from me, thinking that I was just going to get hurt no matter what, knowing that I wasn't ready to trust again especially a man, knowing that he was the first guy I had gone out with since my engagement and was not anywhere close to being ready for a relationship, and that I didn't know him well enough to spill all these beans. I then discovered my 5th goal, to learn how to trust a man even just a little. And don't worry, this particular man has backed off by his choice and to my relief.
So, happy birthday to me and may 2013 bring much joy and opportunity!
Here is a link if you want to learn about the number 13 and the United States of America. But perhaps only I find it fascinating when we relate numbers to history. There is the nerd in me :)
http://www.plaintruth.com/the_plain_truth/the-number-13-and-the-united-states-we-are-lost-israel.html
I really love the number 13 and, well, lucky me I was born on the 13th. If people can get past this false superstition (most people have NO CLUE where it originated), then they can see the importance this number has had in religion and also in our country. I am going into this year with hope knowing that things can only get better. I have hopes of chasing my dreams, reaching my goals, and not letting anyone stand in the way of that.
Most people who read this know that I was engaged to be married and he called it off two months into the engagement. Looking back and seeing where I am now, I realize that before this experience I was way too willing to give up on what I, Natalie, wanted and what my dreams were. I had this idea that as long as we loved each other, we could chase his dreams and I'd be happy. In reality, I could have been happy because I usually am no matter what. I just didn't realize the regret that I would have had for the rest of my life. Regret is one of those things that I've tried to avoid ever since the regret of not pursuing a college softball career like I should have. As I begin again to chase my dreams, new and old, no man will ever have the power to tell me I can't. I've always been a strong, independent woman and this hurt has done nothing but made me stronger. The thing I think that this man finally figured out was that I wasn't going to change and become the woman he thought I should be. I wasn't sitting at home waiting for him and cooking him dinner all the time. I was doing things that I wanted to that were going to help me reach my goals. It wasn't until the sorrow and hurt had began to subside that I realized he had been trying to change me. As I chase my dreams, no man will ever have the power to change who I am.
3 months ago I moved to a new city. I have very few friends, know very few people, and am scared everyday. The thing this city has is opportunity. Opportunity to reach my goals and chase my dreams. I just hope that when opportunity knocks, I answer. My 2013 goals are:
1. To get a job I love. Yeah this is vague, and it is sort of on purpose. I have more specific goals pertaining to this that I have written down elsewhere.
2. Find a way to live in the city of my dreams, Park City.
3. Attend the temple once a week.
4. Conquer my fear of falling. This is a fear that keeps me from doing a lot of fun things in life. Sometimes it becomes quite irrational, so in the words of Bob Newhart, "STOP IT."
I recently went out on a couple dates, assuming that is what they were.. He did pay so I'm calling them dates. It is hard to explain the emotions and internal battle that I experienced. Let's just say that after date #3, I cried my whole drive home. I was struggling with not knowing what he was wanting from me, thinking that I was just going to get hurt no matter what, knowing that I wasn't ready to trust again especially a man, knowing that he was the first guy I had gone out with since my engagement and was not anywhere close to being ready for a relationship, and that I didn't know him well enough to spill all these beans. I then discovered my 5th goal, to learn how to trust a man even just a little. And don't worry, this particular man has backed off by his choice and to my relief.
So, happy birthday to me and may 2013 bring much joy and opportunity!
Here is a link if you want to learn about the number 13 and the United States of America. But perhaps only I find it fascinating when we relate numbers to history. There is the nerd in me :)
http://www.plaintruth.com/the_plain_truth/the-number-13-and-the-united-states-we-are-lost-israel.html
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