Marriage and the Like

As I was talking to Matt tonight, I subtly realized the many stages of "like" a person goes through. Let me explain. Let me preface this, of course. These are completely biased through my sheltered Christian point-of-view. I'm not saying this is how most relationships start, but I this is how mine have generally started in the past.

Here it goes:

First step: you notice the person. And not just, "hey, I sit by you in Biology," but more like "hey, I think you are pretty cute." You may not say that aloud, but that thought has definitely crossed your mind.

Second step: Social networking stalking begins. This is where you find him or her on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. to find as much as possible about the person.  Mainly, you want to make sure you don't see the dreaded words "in a relationship" on their profile anywhere.

Third step: Getting to know him/her better. You either talk to them the next time you see them or you continue to follow his or her every move on the internet. Or, if you are like me, it may involve a combination of both.

Fourth step: You receive an alternative form of contact from the person, most-likely in the form of a phone number. This is where you start to talk to him/her outside of the engagement where you first met. Also, this is where you may contact him/her on their prospective social media profile to start communication that way.

Fifth step: You plan/organize/attend a gathering of some sort together. For Matt and I, it was an Aaron Gillespie concert. It was a blast, even though I was CERTAIN he didn't have feelings for me. Oh how wrong I was.

Sixth step: You either continue to talk to him/her or stop talking as often. If you continue to talk, you are hoping it goes somewhere further (boyfriend/girlfriend). If you stop talking, I'm assuming you found something that just didn't work out. Regardless, you now have another friend.

From there, I guess you know how it goes. You date and either get married or don't. At my age, I'm starting to see more relationships fall on the married side than the non-married side, which scares me.

When I was younger, I always knew I would wait a long time to get married, because I knew my career would be important to me. However, being surrounded by healthy Christian relationships makes me believe I don't have to wait until I'm 25 to get married.

Of course it's up to God's timing and not my own when I should get married. And the guy in the situation has a lot to do with the decision as well. Just six months ago, I was so scared of not getting married until I was 30. I had no one in my life and that's all I could think of. Now that I have someone in my life, I realize that's not the best thing to look forward to each day. I can look forward to seeing him and spending time with him. Who cares about marriage right now? Not me....yet.