Finding Common Ground

On Friday, Matthew and I went for dinner and a movie with his friends Luke and Kristin. Because the boyfriend and I are kind of senior citizens these days, we were worried that the 9:35pm movie would put us to sleep. To prevent this from happening, we ordered some coffees to help keep up our energy. As always, I was practically done mine before Matthew had even begun drinking his. As Matthew was finishing explaining that I have a very high heat tolerance in food and bevarage (mostly due to the Polish obsession with drinking teas and eating soups), and he could devour ice cream at record speeds, Luke inturrupted him and said: "Other than your height, do you two have anything in common?"

We both were speechless for about half a minute (which as you know, can seem like an eternity during an awkward moment), both because we were shocked that he would say something like this, and because we couldn't actually think of a single thing that would counteract his reaction (I'm emberased to admit this, but the only thing I could think of was that our feet are the same size). The truth is, Matthew and I are polar opposites. He likes indie music and movies, I'm happy with Brittany and Brad Pitt. He understands how machines work, I am better at understanding people. He studied sciences, I studied humanities. He plays video games while I read.

Matthew and I have been dating for over 6 years, and it's not like we hadn't noticed that we were different. We even broke up for 8 months during university to try to find partners with more similarities. But to tell you truth, we have discovered that the true similarities that we posses can be found in our morals and values. We are both first born children, which has taught us to be caregivers, and given us a desire to build a family of our own. We are also adventurous, and have a strong desire to explore and admire the beauty of the world around us. We both enjoy trying new and different foods. And most of all, we are both addicted to gathering knowledge, which has enabled us to learn from one another. I think that this is the most important part of our relationship. If we were exactly the same, we wouldn't have the opportunity to experience things that our outside our comfort level. Plus, being polar opposites ensures that we don't get jealous or compete with one another.

I think that we are truly a case of "opposites attract", and even though I know that we do not need to justify our attraction to anyone else, it sometimes makes me sad that people cannot always see how perfectly matched we really are.