Who could have guessed that my time spent in university would be dominated by people with the same first letter as my last name. You see, we were not divided in groups by IQ, degree of ugliness or hometown but alphabetically. You could argue that as soon I was born as Andy The Great of House Techno, the first of his name, King of the Buffet, Protector of the Sixty-nine Kingdoms, the Father of Unacknowledged Children, I was destined to interact eighteen years later with students with similar modest last names. I think it’s underestimated how much our lives are determined by such factors, that just fall upon us. Although there are indeed plenty of ways to influence our environment and putting in some effort also helps.
This girl works in shifts and it was, to put it mildly, a nightmare to find a good time to meet. How many people do I meet or don’t get to meet in my routine life because of differences in rhythm, geography and lifestyle? Equally important, how many of these people do I actually want to meet? Or should I meet? Sometimes I talk with my disciples about hummus and on other occasions about their prospective partner. Often they say something in terms of the desired individual characteristics, fit with that person or the type of connection they want. Less is being said about logistics and convenience. They also say that home-made ones are the best and a good olive oil is essential.
Believers tell me that in the end, love conquers all. Love is a verb and it will be worth it. “Worth it”, two words I often hear. Let’s take for example, distance from each other. A fifteen-minute commute is definitely worth it for anyone, I’d imagine. What about 45 minutes or two hours of travel time? Is an hour’s drive through crazy traffic worth more or less than one hour with two transfers by metro? I’m curious to know how people decide when “it’s worth it”. Of course, it’s personal and saying this doesn’t help anyone. My theory is that what matters the most isn’t what people have to invest but what people have to sacrifice. I know of a woman that takes a two-and-a-half-hour flight each week to see her husband. She basically lives three days in one country and four days in another. It helps that the man is a pilot, that she can almost fly for free and that the flight hours fit their schedule. Things are also easier when you’re a freelancer and you find clients that agree with you working remotely on fixed days. They have been doing this for eight years. There’s another couple (spoiler alert: it didn’t work out) that was in a similar situation. They took turns to fly in to see each other every other weekend. Their relationship sustained for months but especially the financial burden was too much to bear.
I have to agree with lazy daters when it comes to logistics. Why waste time on some exotic alien partner. It’s not “only once” that you’ll face practical challenges. You’ll be continuously reminded how you don’t fit together and have to move heaven and earth to make it work, every. single. time. Pretty hardcore. But we humans creatures don’t decide purely based on rational arguments. Why not take the lemons and make lemonade from it. The mere fact that you’re both willing to give it a go says more than dozens of affirming messages. There’s something valuable in striving for something. Pretty sweet.
I know you’re all dying to know what kind of workout we did. Well, we decided to go for one of those famous full body workouts. I was trashed.
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