People say you can't trust anyone you meet on a dating app (99% of the time, you shouldn't, tbh), but that's how we met! Mick was traveling for work from south Louisiana to Knoxville, TN. We had both decided to give dating one last shot and found each other on Hinge on Christmas Eve, 2021. If you know anything about online dating, you can set your radius anywhere from 30 miles to where you live up to 100 miles. Mick had set his profile at the closest setting since he was only in Knoxville 2 weeks out of each month. On the other hand, I had my profile pushed as far as it would go. Somehow, that beautiful dating app connected us; we've talked every day since then 🥰 I like to think of Mick as the best Christmas present ever. Neither of us thought we would meet anyone. It turns out the universe had the most perfect plan for us. That's how SHE remembers it...now here's my side of the story 😉 -- Allow me to tell this story from a different perspective -- Do you want to know why so many relationships fail? Because we create this imaginary expectation that no human being can live up to, and so round and round we go. Dating is hard because we make it hard. Everyone has this fantasy that 'the perfect person' is out there, and we incessantly chase that fictional dream. We almost fell victim to it as well. Until the first overnight stay 👀 She snored. So did I. She liked 50 lbs. of blankets. I like a sheet at most. I eat a ludicrous amount of protein. She just wanted mac n cheese with pesto in it 😮 But also, her mouth curls to the right ever so slightly when she smiles. Her voice gets super high and mousy when she's happy. She always seems to have the best dream ever when she sleeps, and I love watching her sail away in her own little wonderland of deep sleep. You see, what Elizabeth and I have done differently (in my opinion) is recognize all the inherent good in one another, but we also choose to own the fact that we are imperfect and love each other anyway. We choose to love each other FOR our imperfections, not in spite of them. We accept that we will hardly ever be able to give 100% to each other daily. But on days when she can only give 10%, I will gladly carry the other 90%. Life is hard. And long. And messy. But it's a little bit easier...and a little shorter and more beautiful than is imaginable when you have that perfectly imperfect person to share it with without judgment or angst.