What I did on my summer vacation-

So school has begun, well at least it has in Alabama, and with the beginning of school comes along the cliche "What I did during my summer vacation" essay that ever student supposedly writes every year, if you believe popular pop culture. I, however, have only written one, nearly ten year ago on my family's vacation where we all got the stomach virus. Such happy memories. So, since it's been a decade, I have decided to write my own essay on my summer vacation..well, what I have observed on my summer vacation.

First off, I have really had no summer vacation. I decided, in a whim of stupidity, that I needed to take summer classes that occupied most of my time this summer. That, along with my computer deciding to die a horrible death of horribleness, explains my long absence. But, nevertheless, I am back to infuse the world with my off handed humor and wisdom. You're welcome. Okay,back  to the task at hand. I have been on summer vacation for a grand total of 2 weeks. For 10 days of those two weeks I have been on a family vacation to, surprise surprise, Disney World. So, as I walked around the happiest place on Earth-usually with some sort of sweet or salty treat in my hand- I began to notice the crowd around me....it was all couples. I felt as in everyone I came in contact with was either celebrating an anniversary or engagement or their wedding or just simply taking a trip together so that they could suck face in the queue of a popular ride- like the couple in the Soarin' like where the guy was playfully biting his girlfriend's nose three feet away from me. (The worst part about that wasn't the cannibalistic public behavior but the fact that there were wearing practically the same shorts...Daisy Dukes. *shudder*) Nothing can bring a girl down faster from a cupcake induced sugar high that realizing that you are all alone in crowd of 100,000 plus couples. Yeah, happiest place on Earth all right. After I got through the emotional turmoil, I really began to look at these couples. Now, what I am about to say may never happen again, but I have to say it. *Deep breath* I was wrong. There I said it, I was wrong and I hate admitting that. For years I have believed that we, single people, were each in a dating league and we only dated within our league with very few exceptions that only manifest in the celebrity world. (Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas, seriously, how did that happen?) But, from what I observed in my ten days at the happiest place on Earth was that there is no rhyme or reason under the sun or sea when it comes to matters of the heart. I saw in all, gorgeous guys with average guys, average girls with gorgeous guys, big guys with skinny girls, skinny guys with big girls. See what I mean, no rhyme or reason. Now, don't get me wrong, I saw plenty of gorgeous couples and average couples, couples that would have fit my now invalid theory, but they seemed to be few and far between.

So, what's the point of this, you ask. Well, besides me growing as a person by admitting that I'm wrong, it also restored my faith in the human race when it comes to the WWI battle trenches that I believe dating to be. (Love in a Battlefield- Pat Benatar. Not my usual 80's forte, but I think every female has jumped on her bed screaming the lyrics like in 13 Going on 30) Maybe, instead of it all being physical, as I have come to believe, the human society is looking at the heart first and not the head...or face. Isn't in the person inside that we need to be in love with and not the fun candy coating. The personality is what we should desire about the person, not the gorgeous eyes or strong jaw line or, my weakness, great, muscular, vein popping out forearms. (What can I say, I'm a freak)  But, should I throw myself (haha, like I could ever man up and do that) at every great pair of arms that comes my way and ignore the vein-less sweet guy that will flirt and make fun of me and laugh at my poor attempted jokes? As mentioned several times throughout the Bible, "Certainly not!"  Personality makes a person and, from what my limited dating knowledge is that personality can also make the face, so to speak. I have been in a relationship where I was not at all physically attracted to the guy, but, as I got to know him, I found myself more and more attractive to him. This is apparently what everyone else has figured out, except for me. I have been limiting myself to going after guys that I feel are on my level physically. And, when you feel like the only good feature on you face are your blue eyes and sometimes tamable hair on your head, you don't have much to go on. (No, I'm not fishing for a compliment- this isn't Facebook or Twitter- I'm just brutally honest with myself) But now, after my revelation, I know that love doesn't work like that. I could end up with a dorky guy with glasses and a bachelor's degree in compute science just as easily as I could end up with a gorgeous baseball player- I'll let you guess which one and, no, it's not Dan Uggla. It's all about chemistry. With the right guy (or girl if you are a guy and reading this) it won't matter what your jean size is or hair color or eye color or skin color, for that matter. The right person will be right. So, maybe, instead of working so hard to make over our outside, we work on making over our insides. And I'm preaching to myself here. I don't know if Blogger has a limited on how much you can write but a list of all of my personality shortcomings would probably test that theory. Luckily, these are things we can work on and change, unlike our physical appearance, unless you have a butt load of money cause insurance won't cover that... maybe under Obamacare because that's important. 

Now, after saying that, I do feel like that I have to added a little side note to all of this. Though personality is very important in our travels across this globe to find the proverbial  "One", physical attraction still plays a role in all of this. No matter how wonderful or compatible a personality is, if he/she can't curl your toes with a kiss, then it's probably not going to work. And it doesn't even have to go as far as a kiss to realize this. We all have friends, male or female, that have the greatest personality but, not matter what, you can't make yourself attracted to them. These individuals are usually the ones that we make our "If I don't get married by..." pacts with to assure that we won't be alone for the rest of out lives and that we can have children...though they will probably be adopted. 

So, what am I trying to say in all of this First, I was wrong. My whole system of dating that I developed roughly around the age of 18 is an utter and complete lie...please don't tell my best friends who already told me that I was wrong. Second, the person inside is the person worth looking for. Don't tell yourself that someone it "too attractive" for you or "not attractive enough". Give them, who they really are, a chance- you might just be suprised. Also, no matter what he looks like, he's (or she's) not worth it if he doesn't love the Lord or you the way you should be. From what I have seen of the world, some "10"s have really crappy personalities and some "5"s can make you heart sing.  So, find someone that makes you heart sing or laugh or whatever you are looking for in life. 

Love,

Catherine