Welcome back to my series on the secrets to long and successful marriages and relationships!
Todays results are responses to the question “Was it Love at first sight?” Were there immediate sparks, giddiness, or even fireworks?
There were two (2) definitive “No” responses. The rest were grouped into Yes, Mutual Attraction, and Friendship. I have listed all the “Yes” comments, while sample comments are listed under the last two headings.
It seems that romance is alive. For the 2 couples and 6 other individuals (whose spouses did not respond), Cupids arrow pierced their hearts!
YES!
- (He) I went into the store where she worked, and I was smitten. (She) Love at first sight, I knew he was the one the moment I saw him.
- (She) I saw [him] at a spiritual centre and said to my friend, “that’s my kind of guy”. (He) Pretty much, but getting to know [her] was more important.
- For me, it was love at first sight.
- For me it was – I want to go out with him; once I did I knew he was the one.
- We met through our music – he heard mine, I heard his. So maybe it was love at first audio 🙂
- We were a couple of horny teenagers and had dreams of raising a family.
- Love at first sight, at age 17 [and married 7 years later.]
- I think I fell in love with her the first night we met. I certainly thought she was the prettiest and most intriguing girl I had met.
Mutual Attraction
Other respondents said they had a “strong attraction” but could not say it was “love at first sight.”
- Not sure if it was love at first sight but I was mesmerized by [her] as soon as I saw her.
- (He) We met at the… Community Hall at age 14 and by 16 we were madly in love. (She) We met at a community dance when we were 14. I just couldn’t stop looking at him. And he says it was the same for him.
- She walked into a room and I was obviously staring and received the coldest stare ever. I thought there is a challenge
- Strong attraction and a sense of compatibility in various ways – sense of humour, politics, interests in music…. Living down the hall from each other was a factor too.
- [We] met at a Jr Ranks Club… I was [a] 19-year-old private, he was 23. I was new on the base and ready to party hardy as I was living in barracks. [A week later] …we were…standing beside his orange Firebird ( can’t remember all the details of how) and he said to me. “Just give me a chance” and I did.
- I certainly had an immediate attraction – he had a sweet smile and I liked his energy.
Friendship First
Most respondents developed a friendship before committing to one another exclusively. They took some time and made the effort to learn about the other person and tested their compatibility. Some dated other people and/or were living/working/studying in different cities.
- We were friends first and enjoyed one another’s company. Three years later, [he] came back into my life in Edmonton (we had met in Toronto)
- We were friends at first and it developed into love.
- Got to know her gradually and developed a sense of comfort in the relationship.
- It was not love at first sight. [They dated each other and other, and after a hiatus of 5 years, got together again and married after 8 months.]
- We worked together and relationship grew over time.
- We met in our teens, and dated off and on before getting serious. I would say we formed a friendship first and had many family similarities…
- We met in the late 1970s as neighbours in the same apartment building and co-activists in our tenants’ association… This entailed many meetings of the tenants, we took note of one another and we started dating at that time.
- Not first-sight; took several months and a lot of reflection as we were separated by a 2-hour drive, so it took longer to know him better.
- We were a couple about 10 years before we got married.
- [Met as undergrads at university, they had different interests. Five years passed at different communities for grad studies.] [He] invited me for a dinner date. We clicked, found shared interests in travel, books, movies and looked forward to life together in less than a year!
Personally, I believe that to truly love someone, one must know that person, warts included. Knowing takes time.
Thanks to Jamie Street for his featured image from Unsplash.
On December 7, Responses to: What are the top 3 reasons for having had such a long and successful relationship with your partner/spouse?