Response #4

Hey Jonny,

[husband] says:

It's hard to tell people to adjust their expectations. But be at least open to the possibility with a relationship with anybody. And adjust your expectation to be realistic. And not just your expectation of what the person is like, but what your expectation of being in a relationship should be like. I think the women have this image of marrying an up and coming senator or general authority. I think the men think they want to get married, but are too attached to their stress-free bachelor lifestyles. Consider, arranged marriages have very low divorce rates. (Ha ha, just kidding. But they do.)

[wife] says:

I think it would be interesting to ask the Relief Society to write a list of boys (three to five names) in the ward they would like to date. I would guess once the list was compiled you wouldn't have more than twenty names on it. Same for the Priesthood. I think that makes my point. Frankly, I never would have picked [husband] as the kind of person I would be spending forever with, I never dated anyone like him before or since, and yet I couldn't be happier. He is so amazing and such an incredible person.

One point we both strongly agree on can be explained in this video, "The Paradox of Choice" by Barry Schwatz on ted.com. Its about twenty minutes long and we found fascinating. Dating is just one application, I hope you take the time to listen to it.

Last thing, we both want to endorse marriage. We've been kidding around a lot, but we both absolutely love being married. Its the best thing that ever happened to us. It's seriously so awesome. If I had known how amazing it was going to be I would have done it years ago. (ha ha) I hope everyone has the opportunity to experience such joy and bliss.

Cheers,