A Different View

Based on the response I was getting from the comments, I knew that I needed to show a different perspective.  I thought about interviewing my dad, but I was more interested in how the teenage boy's mind works.  I decided to ask my friend (let's just call him Joe) if he would be willing to answer a few questions for me.  I tried to make it as casual as possible.  We had our conversation over text and I tried to make it not seem like an interview.
I'll give you a little background information from what I learned about Joe while texting him.  Joe said that of the girls he has dated, he considers three to be significant relationships.  The longest of those three lasted for seven months.  I haven't known Joe for very long, but in the time that I have known him, I would say he is a typical teenage guy and can be a flirt at times, but he really is a good guy, a great guy actually.  I told him about how my dad is constantly warning me about high school boys.  He always tells me that high school boys want one thing and one thing only.  I asked Joe what he thought about that and he said there are good guys out there but they tend to be looked over.  They aren't always the best-looking guys and that girls seem to get caught up in how attractive a guy is and miss out.  According to Joe, he said he would consider himself a good guy though because he tries to treat a girl the best he can and isn't after that one thing my dad has always warned me about.
I was curious as to what guys are attracted to when they see a girl.  Joe said that he is usually drawn in by her facial structure, but particularly her eyes and teeth.  I mean, I have heard people say that a girl's smile is the prettiest part about her.  He told me that honestly, how attractive a girl is is what he is most interested in, but that isn't the only factor.  A personality is what keeps the girl around.  If she is pretty but has no personality, Joe said he has no interest in her.  He said it's important for both to be present.
"If a girl thinks about her future with a guy, it's normal.  If a guy thinks about his future with a girl, he's serious."  This is a quote I have seen possibly everywhere: Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, you name it.  In my first post I mentioned how girls my age are already planning their dream weddings.  It's easy for them to have control of things like whether they want a ballgown or A-line style dress or what the color scheme should be.  The one thing they cannot control, no matter what they want to believe, they don't know who that man will be standing at the end of the aisle.  But hey, a girl can dream right?!  Joe said that no, guys obviously don't dream about all the little details but he admits to wondering who he will marry.  He said that he doesn't care about how the wedding goes, as long as he marries the girl of his dreams.  However, guys will also date girls based on a not so distant picture of the future.  If they can't picture dating a girl, then they won't try to pursue it.  Overall, yes, guys do think about the future despite what most people think.
I know that Joe's view could be very different from a lot of guys, but still it is a guy's point of view.  I was actually surprised by some of the similarities.  It made me realize that not all guys are monsters (sorry, that might be too harsh of a word) and that there truly are great guys out there who care about and hope for a great future with someone they love.

Fairy Tale Ending

For my interview blog, I thought long and hard as to who I should interview.  I considering interviewing some of my friends, but I figured we would probably all have close to the same point of view.  I finally decided that I would interview my mom because, after all, her and my dad are who I have always looked up to to understand what love is.
I started out by asking my mom questions about when she met my dad.  She told me about how they met when they were 21.  About five months after they met they started dating but it didn't last very long.  They became friends after that because my dad moved back to Huntsville after college and my mom stayed in Jackson, MS.  During the time they dated however, my dad told my mom that he loved her.  She told me that she said she knew in her heart she did too but she couldn't say the words back.  Over the next three years my dad would come visit his friends in Jackson and would go and would get to see my mom too, but it wasn't until three years later that he finally said something to her.  Three years after he moved back to Huntsville, he finally came to Jackson and asked my mom what they were doing with their lives acting the way they were.  She finally told him that he was the one.  A few months later they were engaged and three months after that they were married.
I knew some of this story already, so I knew it worked well with my topic.  However I didn't know the whole story.  I was shocked to find out that over all my parents were actually dating for less than a year.  Considering they met when they were 21 and got married when they were 27, one year is not long at all.  I asked my mom what gave her hope and patience.  She responded with she never felt pressure to find a husband.  She had a great life and she actually enjoyed being single.  She said she had no intention of getting married right out of college.  She also said though that during the time my dad was living in Huntsville she couldn't stop thinking about him.  My mom said that she would think about him while she was teaching, watching television, anything.  She could not get him out of her head.  She explained that that was how she knew he was the one.
The one thing that stuck out the most to me that my mom told me was that she said she remembers praying to God asking Him to either get my dad off of her mind, or bring him back into her life so she could decide if she loved him or not.  Well obviously we know the end results of that prayer.  It made me think about how God has control of our love lives.  He has someone picked out for us.  My mom told me that she always believed someone was out there for her.