- Speak to them from the heart.
- Smile at everything they throw at you (even if they hate you to the bone).
- Shower all your love onto their daughter in front of them.
- Help future mother-in-law run errands (and take her side against future father-in-law, especially during arguments).
- Help future father-in-law change his flat tyre (but still take future mother-in-law's side during said arguments).
- Hold their daughter's 'twinky' in front of them just to rile them up.
- Learn how to speak in a funny 'dong' (ie. Indonesian) accent.
- Respect her parents (even if they treat you like a dog).
- Always P.U.S.H. (Pray until something happens).
- If 1 to 9 fails, then do either of the following:
- Run away and elope with her. (If she's not agreeable, go to Plan B: kidnap her to a 3rd country. Then persuade her to elope.)
- Wait with their daughter until you're both in your 60s before marrying. (It's okay. Time is definitely on your side.)
"No one knows how long a relationship will last.....but I think finding someone that can break into the heart is good enough a reason to pursue that relationship; regardless of not knowing what might come next."
A close friend in New Zealand uttered this to me just a short while ago and it caused a minor ripple of revelation within. Unsurprisingly, this has to do with the fact that I entered into a relationship with a young lady recently; a person whom I had fatefully gotten acquainted with during last April Fools' Day.
Be it a Fools' hoax or otherwise, I have grown to adore her much since then. As is with all partnership relationships, there has been the obligatory dose of tumultuous twists and turns. Little wonder then that my hairy unshaven face was lined with a cynical smirk when George Michael crooned "Turn a different corner and we never would have met..." on the MP3 yesterday evening. What irony. Coz the truth was, that was it. We almost didn't make it.
Life's such a mystery. Sometimes things would seem to move along so well. It could be like a slow train chugging away towards its final stop. Otherwise, it could also appear in the form of the stark raving mad bull charging and zeroing in on its target. And then the unpredictable happens. A small pebble on the track or a 10-ton runaway truck could appear out of nowhere. The train derails. And the bull? Well, he'd be on his way to the meat market. Hehe.. ;)
Regardless, the point is this. That a freakish small deflection can often pervert the course of our entire lives. Just when you thought you own it all, when the world looked solely to be your oyster, the train or the bull gets steered away at the last moment by another of Newton's Laws. What this translates to is that you'd have lost that moment. That one critical moment that would have defined how truly happy you could have lived. And I know what that's like. It's happened before. And though she ditched me and is now blissfully married and blessed with a superduper cute daughter, I bear her no ill will. On the contrary, we're still as close as we had previously been. Good friends.
Which is why I am certain that when she reads this, she too will be glad for me. Just weeks ago, she had voiced her concern over my lackadaisical attitude towards seeking a life partner. Well Butterfly, I finally did it. I found me a 'Twinky'. Happy now? I know I ecstatically am.
: )
