[HPFGU-OTChatter] Dating/Marriage

[Ebony Elizabeth Thomas]

Amber wrote:

>Question to all: Did you know right away that you had met the "Person
>of Your Dreams"? How long before you knew?
>

Yes, everyone, please do share!  I love hearing about real-life romances... 
keeps this lady-in-waiting from getting cynical, as does 
reading/viewing/writing love stories.  ;-)

>I must also confess, people who marry young (ages between 16 and 21)
>have amazed me as well. I have a couple friends who have married/are
>marrying at age 21. When I ask them about it, they simply say that they
>can't wait any longer! <sigh> Ay, young love, such a giddy thing...
>

In my own experience, I've found this to be a regional thing.  Most of my 
college friends from the South are married, whereas none of my high school 
buddies up here in the North are.  I think this is very much a case of 
children living what they learn... most of my college friends grew up in 
stable, two-parent homes, but most up here were raised by single mothers.  
As I said during the Disney discussion, certain women know better than to 
expect the fairy tale because they feel that it doesn't apply to them.

In January I left a relationship that I was in for nearly three years, and 
it was an extremely jarring experience... I thought that he was it for me.  
I wasn't delusional... we'd talked seriously about getting married and made 
concrete plans for the future.  And then... well, as Janet Jackson says, 
"That's the way love goes."

I've learned many life lessons from my experience.  I've learned is that 
when life throws you a curve ball, you don't let it smack you in the face, 
you do your best to hit a home run.  I've learned that my heart ultimately 
belongs to me... and I am responsible for who I allow to handle it.  I've 
learned that sometimes you've got to rediscover yourself... to know what you 
really want most out of life.  I've learned that I do not have to settle, to 
compromise who I am and what I believe for anyone.

And most importantly, I've learned to never, *ever* give up hope.

--Ebony (who, with her roommates, used to watch *A Wedding Story* on TLC on 
a daily basis)

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><
Ebony AKA AngieJ
ebonyink at hotmail.com

Come join us in Paradise!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HP_Paradise

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http://www.geocities.com/heiditandy/

"Be not amazed, beloved, if sometimes my song grows dark...
Perhaps, beloved, I shall fall tomorrow on a restless earth
Lamenting your sinking eyes, and the dark tom-tom of the
    mortars below.
And you will weep for the twilight, for the glowing voice
That sang your black beauty."

--Leopold Sedar Senghor, Negritude movement, 1963

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