When I was a sophomore in college, my roommate Mel had an older brother named Ryan. I thought he was so cute. And he was in a band. And he was so nice. I had a crush on him. One day, Ryan was over and he invited Mel and Cyndie (Mel's best friend--they'd gone to high school together and both were my roommates) to go see an Oingo Boingo concert. I had never even heard of Oingo Boingo. But Mel and Cyndie were excited to go and Ryan was going and so I invited myself along. I hoped it would give me a chance to talk to Ryan and get to know him better. But Ryan was pretty shy--and definitely not interested in me. I ended up sitting next to one of Ryan's friends and band members, Karl. It turned out that I knew two Oingo Boingo songs (only two--but at least a couple of songs were familiar) and it also turned out that Karl was funny and pretty easy to talk to. Even though things didn't go as I planned at the concert, it still ended up being a fun night. And it wasn't long before Karl and I started dating and dated off and on for the next two years.
LESSONS LEARNED:
When things don't go as expected, you can get angry or you can mope or you can decide to have fun anyway.
Sometimes doing something out of your comfort zone ends up being really a positive experience.
I didn't marry Karl, but I learned a great deal about myself and about relationships from dating him. I'm glad that I met him and had the experience of dating him because it helped me learn and grow in many ways.
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