It’s been quite a unique experience so far; dating someone. I remember very well how I have always dreamed of what it would be like for me; eventually stepping out of being single and then being with someone I can call mine. Honestly, I didn’t even know what to expect, though I believed I was a hundred percent ready for whatever was coming.
This, I believe is a familiar feeling to many who may have now embarked on a love journey with their chosen partners and also to some young adults who are yet to get there. Whichever category, there’s always a time when the dating experience is new to us and if we would be sincere, it often comes with many surprises (the good, the bad and the ugly).
The very first shocker I got in my own experience was the reality of having to compulsorily quit being a lone ranger and become a team player with someone who may not necessarily always have exactly the same submission as me. I didn’t fully understand the gravity of this particular reality until I began to learn that I could no longer just make decisions randomly because whatever step I took and whatever move I made had a direct or indirect effect on who I am dating and even on us both. Sometimes I forget that I am now in a partnership and I want to act solo like I used to and then she calmly chips in an opinion that brings me back to the reality that I am no longer in that phase where I can go solo for as long as I want.
At the beginning, I didn’t find it funny and I constantly struggled with myself for a while before I could eventually subdue my ego and to my greatest surprise, this reality became much more profiting that I could have ever thought. Sometimes I cannot even even make a move without first asking her opinion and it has always turned out too that “two good heads are better than one”. There are times I would think I was getting it right until I talk to her and a simple question will just show me what I am missing.
Dating someone will definitely require that you stop thinking about yourself alone and begin to think of the impact of your decisions on the next person and I strongly believe this is fundamental in preparing a man for the leadership of the smallest and most important unit of any society; the family.
Author: Ezekiel Akolawole Kehinde