I am once again participating in Sometimes Sweet’s weekly journal prompts (they’re back!), and this week the prompt is:

Let’s talk about love. Do you believe in the idea of a soulmate? Do you think there is one person for everyone- and do you think that no matter what, if you’re “supposed” to meet that person you will? This week, talk about your experience with love and discuss what you believe, and also be sure to touch on what helped shape those beliefs. 

I’ve always been an avid movie watcher, and while I watch many genres, I do like my animated films and romantic comedies.  One thing that both have in common is usually unrealistic love stories. It’s refreshing that over the past few years, even Disney has realized this and is changing things up a bit. When I was younger it just seemed normal that the leading lady of the story would always magically find true love… usually instantly.  They’d just know they were meant to be and there would be singing followed by a wedding, all within a few days.  Sigh.

Thankfully even Disney can see how silly this is and I loved how they made fun of this a bit in ‘Enchanted.’ I also appreciate that they’ve been changing how the lead female characters behave – creating strong girls and women (Brave), or showing the folly of thinking you’ve found true love in one day (Frozen). So, I guess you could say I don’t really believe in the whole love at first sight and soul mate (in terms of one true love). It just seems so unlikely that there is only one person out there for us all because what are the odds that you’ll actually meet them in a world that is so big?

That being said, if you mean soul mate as the term is actually defined, then yes, I think we may each have several soul mates out there because technically a soul mate can just be a close friend who completely understands you, or perhaps as Anne of Green Gables would have said, “A bosom friend.”  So… am I married to my soul mate?  It’s funny because we actually went on our first two dates in the same day.  We went out to lunch and then discovered be both really liked movies, so Josh asked me to come over later that night to hang out and watch a few.  When I think about it, I suppose our relationship did move pretty quickly – we moved in together after we had been dating for maybe 6-7 months, and we moved out of state just shy of a year of dating.

As for whether or not he’s my soul mate… I couldn’t say. I don’t know that he completely understands me, and I may never completely understand him either.  Does this mean our marriage is doomed?  Probably not.  I think it helps that so many of our interests differ because we can do more things independently from each other, and as an Introvert – I NEED time to myself. I think when people use the term “soul mate” they’re potentially setting themselves up for disappointment because so often it carries such high expectations with it (thanks to movies, television, books, etc.).

I’ve been trying to lower my expectations… right now I feel like my soul mate is probably a thick piece of chocolate cheesecake and a hot cup of coffee.  Cheesecake gets me.