If you're currently unattached and feel ready to look for a life partner, you should consider formulating a personal policy for dealing with blind dates. Some friends and family members will undoubtedly try to play matchmaker at one time or another and urge you to meet "someone who's just right for you". If you let your preferences be known ahead of time, you will perhaps be spared some unpleasant or boring evenings with someone you wouldn't choose to accompany anywhere at all!
Below are some areas to which you might want to give some consideration.
* Age: my personal preference would be to meet someone no more than five years younger or ten years older than myself.
* Language: a blind date should speak English, or another language in which you are fluent. If you can't communicate, you won't discover the interesting details ( both favorable and unfavorable) about their personality. Familiarity with many languages is an asset, but you must be able to exchange ideas freely.
* Height and Weight: everyone will have his or her own preferences, and some will be more definite about their likes and dislikes in this area than others. Most people would prefer a date within normal limits for height and weight.
* Children: are you willing to date someone with children? Keep in mind that, by doing so, you are raising the possibility that someday in the future, you may become a step parent.
* Occupation: are there jobs you find distinctly off-putting, or disgusting such as someone who works in a slaughter house, a fish factory or maybe a mortician? If so, it's better to disqualify these types of blind dates before you waste even one evening.
* Salary range: most people will want someone who is at least self-supporting. If you are planning on a marriage in which both partners work, you may be a little more flexible on the matter of your date's salary range.
* Personality type: if you are a Type A, a go-getter, a restless person who loves to travel and seldom sits still, you won't be happy for long for with a stick-in-the-mud who loves to sit, read and watch TV.
By all means, let well-meaning family and friends know when you are interested in going on blind dates. By doing so, you'll enlarge your circle of possible new contacts. Those closest to you will want to help and you have the assurance of knowing that they are sincerely interested in your welfare.
To help avoid hurt feelings and wasted evenings, share the list of the criteria upon which you have decided. Be sure to stress that they are just guidelines. Your soul mate may not fulfill one or two of your qualifications, but be perfect in ways that are even more important. It's important, when going the blind date route, to keep an open mind and a keen sense of adventure.
Alert the Search Committee when you're ready to begin. Now, all you need to do is go home and wait for the phone to ring. Have fun!
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