My parents have one of the greatest love stories ever told. It gives most Nicholas Sparks novels a run for their money. It's interesting to think about all you can learn from a couple that first started dating when they were only fifteen.
Despite the common belief, it is OK to date your friend's ex.
If my dad hadn't asked my mom out six months after his friend dated her, this story never would have begun. My parents first met at my dad's swim meet. She was dating his teammate, and went to cheer her boyfriend on. My dad was interested in her from the start and after she and his friend broke up, he waited the "required six months" before he executed his grand gesture of breaking into the high school pool with her one night. As my mom says, "After that we were just dating."
Think outside the box.
When my parents first started dating, they were fifteen. Neither of them had their license or a car, and despite living 16 miles apart, that didn't stop my dad from biking to her house all the time to go on dates. That's right, my dad biked 32 miles every time he went on a date with my mom. Unfortunately, he eventually got too tired of doing that so he broke up with her. My mom is still slightly bitter about this, but I suppose she's forgiven him by now.
Just because it's complicated, doesn't mean it won't work out.
After my dad broke up with my mom, he and my grandma moved away, so he could train with a better swim team. The state swim meet was back in my mom's hometown, so when he went to State my grandpa told my mom to go see him. Awkward enough, my dad had a new girlfriend already who was there as well. Bizarre things like that happened a lot with my parents. They were in the "talking" phase for years. My dad went on to go to West Point in New York for college, and my mom went to University of Wisconsin, Madison. It wasn't the simple high school sweetheart cliche at all.
Long distance can actually work out.
While my parents were in college, like I said earlier, they lived half a country apart and they weren't actually even dating. They kept in touch, and finally one day over a break from school, they decided to get back together. Long distance is never easy, but they wrote letters and my mom saved money up to visit him in New York.
You can pull off a wedding on a Wednesday.
On November 28, 1990, my parents got married. It was a Wednesday and all put together in a very short period of time. They weren't supposed to get married until December, but with the Gulf War and my dad in the military, he had to get to training before their scheduled wedding date. They pulled off a wedding on short notice at a friend's big Southern house. The moral of this story is: Brides to be -- calm down, you're wedding will still be beautiful no matter what goes wrong.
Basically, what everyone should take away from my parents' love story is that it is OK to divert from the dating dos and don'ts list. It's perfectly fine to go against bro code and date your friend's ex. If you don't have a car, bike to her house. On again, off again relationships can work out. If you live far away, stay in touch. High school sweethearts can get married. Mine have been married for 25 years.
