I need your honest response ...

Davis937 said:

This will be an unusual question ... I'm positive that it has not yet been posed on this forum ... I was wondering if you ended up marrying the person (man or woman) that you loved the most in your life ... I'll start off by saying (... good thing this is anonymous ... hope it is!) that I did not ... I've had four serious relationships in my life ... the lady I loved the most was, oddly enough, the partner that I had the most difficult /challenging relationship problems with (a long list) ... I ended up marrying someone else ... so, how about you ... my contention is that most of us, for a variety of reasons, do not end up marrying that person that we have the most love for ...

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rommil said:

You have a good reason for missing it. After you say "I do" just do the Nadal fistpump and yell "vamos". It will feel like you didnt miss anything at all. Nike bandana is optional lol.
Have fun and again congrats!

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drakulie said:

Hmmmm. intersting question. How does one truly define or put a value on love? I believe I undertand your point, though, and definitely undertand your point about "the one you loved most, you also had the most difficulty with". This is most likely because there was a lot of passion involved in this relationship, that made the feelings that much more intense.

I myself could easily say I have truly "loved" or been "in love" with 2 lovely ladies. Each of these relationships (good and bad) taught me things that made my next relationship better/easier, and without so much headache. Now I'm on my 3rd "love", and thankfully, I have the memories and lessons of the other two to guide me thru this one, which has been very smooth, and as a result, am getting married in about two weeks. I no longer make the same mistakes, and am a more rounded person, less selfish, and easier to talk to. I am also more comfortable in my skin because of the two past relationships. I thank all the lovely ladies who helped make drak who he is today.

can I truly say I love this one more than the other two?? Not really, but what I can say is my understanding of the word and what it means in my relationship makes this relationship much better, and to a degree, makes me value her much more. So in a way, Yes, I love her more fully, and completely. Hope that makes sense.

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drakulie said:

We actually named all the tables for the reception after some of the all time greats, and will have a buffet, rather than meal served, which will include food from each of the slams.

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sureshs said:

A Nadal tapas table?

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sureshs said:

A Nadal tapas table?

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drakulie said:

Yes, one of the tables is named after Nadal .

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Cindysphinx said:

Re OP:

The things that you love love love about a person may in fact be things that aren't good for you personally or relationship-wise.

I think the type of love that works best for marriage is when the person you love brings out the best in you.

To Drakulie:

Best wishes!!!!!!!

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Kevin T said:

She gave new meaning to the term jealousy, even with totally plutonic female friends from college, etc.

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drakulie said:

Yes, one of the tables is named after Nadal .

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cucio said:

You know what they say about those plutonic chicks... they are da bomb (rimshot)

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cucio said:

You know what they say about those plutonic chicks... they are da bomb (rimshot)


Nice!! I was listening to The Gap Band's "You dropped the bomb on me" while writing that line. Err....ummm.....platonic...not plutonic/radioactive.

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drakulie said:

Hmmmm. intersting question. How does one truly define or put a value on love? I believe I undertand your point, though, and definitely undertand your point about "the one you loved most, you also had the most difficulty with". This is most likely because there was a lot of passion involved in this relationship, that made the feelings that much more intense.

I myself could easily say I have truly "loved" or been "in love" with 2 lovely ladies. Each of these relationships (good and bad) taught me things that made my next relationship better/easier, and without so much headache. Now I'm on my 3rd "love", and thankfully, I have the memories and lessons of the other two to guide me thru this one, which has been very smooth, and as a result, am getting married in about two weeks. I no longer make the same mistakes, and am a more rounded person, less selfish, and easier to talk to. I am also more comfortable in my skin because of the two past relationships. I thank all the lovely ladies who helped make drak who he is today.

can I truly say I love this one more than the other two?? Not really, but what I can say is my understanding of the word and what it means in my relationship makes this relationship much better, and to a degree, makes me value her much more. So in a way, Yes, I love her more fully, and completely. Hope that makes sense.

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Chris Rizutto said:

I bet you didn't marry the one you loved most because she didn't feel the same way or she was a massive pain in the azz. High maintenance women are not worth the time, money or effort.

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Kevin T said:

I hope your wife doesn't read this!! Good topic. Prior to my wife, I was in a 10 year relationship with someone I thought I would be with forever. We had similar interests, loved the same music, played tennis together, loved to cook, enjoyed fine food/drinks. Physical parts of the relationship were other-worldly. But she was dishonest about deep-seated psych issues with me that only surfaced years into the relationship. I did my best to help out, got appointments with the best docs/specialists. She could be happy one minute, then virtually suicidal the next. She gave new meaning to the term jealousy, even with totally plutonic female friends from college, etc. One day she just came in and said " I don't want this anymore" and left, no ifs, ands or buts. No chance of counseling, etc. Just gone. I took it hard for a year or so but soon realized all the good was really outweighed by the bad. We fought a lot and she could get batsh*t crazy. Our relationship was eighter a 10 or a 1, no in between.

But everything with my wife is soooo easy. We never fight. We have a number of different interests but plenty similar. She's cool as a cucumber. Her attitude is the same as my favorite girlfriend from college...I know who you're coming home with. Women can flirt with me when I'm out (I bartended in college, so it was a daily thing), though I don't return the favor (usually ), but she knows where my bread is buttered. She's so confident/sure of herself. Pretty much every day is pleasant. Do we have that explosive connection that I had with girl #1? Maybe not but it's very close. And I appreciate every other aspect of life so much that I couldn't be happier. Like Drakulie said, you live and learn. If girl #1 was still in my life, we would be totally miserable. She was good for my 20's but not my 30's. I try to look at things like that. Every relationship happened for a reason and lead me to this point in life. I literally would nevr have met my wife without dating #1 because at the time, she convinced me to move somewhere I was against. But it worked out great for me! My wife is who I was meant to be with and someone I can imagine growing old with. Good luck.

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Talker said:

Married people are not with the best person for them generally.
Everyone has about 20-50 opposite sex people to chose from and will usually pick one of those. It's just the best fit from a very small pool.
No matter what pool your chosing from you'll most likely find that "special" person.
There's probably millions of better mates around the world but who has time to meet them all.

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Rockitdog said:

I can honestly say I did not love the person I love(ed) the most. I wish I could say that but cannot. I've never felt the same way about anyone as I felt for my first love - 15 years later (married for 7). I don't think this is as unusal as the OP might suspect.

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r2473 said:

I get my relationship / marriage advice from Woody Allen:

From the movie
Love and Death

-Love is everything, Boris.
I wanna meet some man
and scale the heights of passion
Some man who embodies
the three great aspects of love.
Intellectual, spiritual and sensual.

-Well, there's not too many of us
around, but it can be done.

- So many women settle cheaply.
- I know. Poor things.

- They marry for money.
- Money! Well, money.

-But I feel as though
my life would be wasted
if I didn't love deeply
with a man whose mind I respected,
whose spirituality equalled mine,
and who had the same lustful appetite
for sensual passion that drives me insane.

-You're an incredibly complex woman.

-I guess you could say
I'm half saint, half wh0re.

-Here's hoping I get the half that eats.

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Cindysphinx said:

Re OP:

The things that you love love love about a person may in fact be things that aren't good for you personally or relationship-wise.
I think the type of love that works best for marriage is when the person you love brings out the best in you.

To Drakulie:

Best wishes!!!!!!!

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Davis937 said:

This will be an unusual question ... I'm positive that it has not yet been posed on this forum ... I was wondering if you ended up marrying the person (man or woman) that you loved the most in your life ... I'll start off by saying (... good thing this is anonymous ... hope it is!) that I did not ... I've had four serious relationships in my life ... the lady I loved the most was, oddly enough, the partner that I had the most difficult /challenging relationship problems with (a long list) ... I ended up marrying someone else ... so, how about you ... my contention is that most of us, for a variety of reasons, do not end up marrying that person that we have the most love for ...

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grimmbomb21 said:

*raises hand*

Let's see. Rushed into a relationship with the wrong person. Nothing but drama from the get go. Absolutely nothing in common. We have two kids or I would be talking about this marriage in the past tense. But we do have an honest relationship. She openly admits that she is here because she doesn't have to work. Don't get married when you're twenty years old I guess. See buddy, someone's always got it worse. :lol:

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Davis937 said:

Hey, GB21 ... thanks for sharing ... it's a d*** scary feeling ... to wake up in the morning ... look at the lady lying down next to you ... and thinking ... now how the hell did I end up in this relationship ... you know, it's not too late (... I know, even with the kids) ... you need to make some difficult decisions ... if you don't ... it will be another 10 years down the road ... and is that fair to you .. and to her ... and to your children? Good luck to you ...

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grimmbomb21 said:

My wife actually told my oldest(only 11) we were getting divorced a few months back to just to **** me off. I had a long talk with him and decided to tough it out, fake the smile and move on. Sure I may be burning some good years, but hopefully I will look back and be able to say my kids were better off for it. Or they may be shooting at people with AK-47s from building tops cursing my not so good name. (See Parenthood movie)

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raiden031 said:

I think it depends on how you portray your relationship in front of your kids. It can be worse for them to stay together if you are fighting and belittling each other all the time. My parents did just that and weren't concerned about how their dysfunctional relationship might affect their 3 kids. If you can hide your problems from your kids then maybe its better to stay together, but I think we only get to live life once and should strive to be happy. If you care about your kids then you can still be good parents while apart.

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Tina said:

Hey Davis, I am a bit concerned about this thread here at TTW. You have some personal issues with your current wife? I hope everything is well. Take Cares. -Tina

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Davis937 said:

Hey Kevin ... thanks so much for taking the time to post ... and a very detailed post at that ... appreciate your sharing ... I'm glad things worked out for you ... I used the word "wistful" for my past relationships ... my love was probably the "hottest" with the woman I had the most difficulty with ... but, there was plenty of passion ... both positive and negative ... also, my sexual relationship with her has been unparalleled ... can't quite figure out why ... hmmm, there was definitely a wild side to our relationship ... very edgy ... I suppose that made things interesting (... and also very difficult) for the two of us ... I still miss her (although I'm with a wonderful woman now ... probably, undeservedly so) ...

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Davis937 said:

Hey Cindy ... you're so very right ... and I know I have too often been attracted to those things in my partner that maybe haven't led to much stability in the relationship ... most of us will "grow up" ... or see some of these ... hmmm ... destructive or dangerous aspects of our personalities ... things eventually get "less fun" but maybe more stable and lasting ... does there always have to be a trade off ... so tell us, Cindy ... did you finally end up with the one you loved the most ... or did that not work out ... as we know, there are definitely no guarantees!

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Talker said:

Married people are not with the best person for them generally.
Everyone has about 20-50 opposite sex people to chose from and will usually pick one of those. It's just the best fit from a very small pool.
No matter what pool your chosing from you'll most likely find that "special" person.
There's probably millions of better mates around the world but who has time to meet them all.

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cucio said:

You guys make it sound as if a perfect match was already out there and you just have to find it. That's a cool story for a Holywood romantic comedy, but I don't think it works like that in real life.

You begin with a good match and build up from there. If you are willing to make your relationship work out you mold each other, make small concessions, and eventually grow to be that fabled perfect match, as much as you can.

Whether it works out or not depends on whether the satisfactions of that come out of belonging to a happy couple compensate the small adjustments you have to make in your own personality.

In my case I can say that those adjustments have not only brought me immense happiness and a companion whom I can trust with everything and that will put my well-being in front of hers (as I will do for her, which can lead to sweet, silly conflicts of interest, let me tell you ), but made me a better person, one I am prouder of being.

So, wrapping up: a successful long-term relationship takes work, be it a marriage, a friendship or a business venture. You have to nurture it.

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Kevin T said:

No problem. It's actually nice to see a topic like this on TTW (vs. the old negative stuff). I know exactly how you feel. I think about "those" aspects with my ex fairly often...then all the negative stuff comes seeping back in and I come to my senses. I think a lot of it has to do with sentimentality. I always look back fondly on past cities I've lived in, jobs I've had, etc....even when I was borderline miserable at the time. I tend to push out the bad and keep the good. That's why every time I look back at those times with fondness, I give myself a nice, hard 'Godsmack' to bring me back to reality. I know I'm with the best woman I can get (to be honest, not sure I really believe in only one 'soulmate, etc.-other than my kids) and that's good enough for me. Both people have to be willing to put in the work because a good marriage requires effort in all areas. I have a co-worker who has been married 40 years (since he was 17!!) and his best comment on marriage is "you're gonna have good years and bad years, you just have to make sure there's a lot more good than bad".

And speaking of getting married early...worst thing anyone can do, IMHO. I'm going to do my best to talk my kids into waiting until at least their late 20's. I think it's good to go out and travel, see as much as you can and meet as many people as you can before you take the plunge.

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Cindysphinx said:

20th anniversary is this fall, so I'd say we've done OK.

The thing I have noticed is that marriages have peaks and valleys. The valleys can be huge, and when you're in the middle of one it doesn't feel so good.

I'm very glad I hung in there through the valleys. Then again, I married a guy who values the same things I do. When we are in the valley, we have managed not to sink as low of either of us might have wanted to, and we haven't said things to each other that can't be taken back.

I'd say if you're in a valley -- and someday you will be if you hang around long enough -- try to gut it out. It's hard to put your energies in being nice to That Person who did you wrong or won't be reasonable or won't whatever-it-is, but it is possible to find the next peak.

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Davis937 said:

Hey Cindy ... thanks for the post ... looks like you've discovered one of the secrets of a successful marriage ... yes, it takes a lot of WORK and COMMITMENT ... two simple things yet something many people are unwilling to invest in!

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Cindysphinx said:

^It takes work to do your duty.

Ask anyone in the armed services.

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