About differences…

Everyone who knows Rob comments about how nice he is.  And he is… he’s one of the top 5 nicest people I know. On vacation, I’d often find myself dissecting seemingly meaningless activities to try to figure out how it could become more efficient, while Rob was just simply enjoying the experience.  And other times (mostly at the casino…maybe because new shoes were on the line for me), Rob would be concerned and I’d be ‘Just enjoy!’

You see, Rob and I couldn’t be more different.  He’s super calm, I’m super hyper.  He’s very patient…I’m well…a tiny bit (ah….who am I kidding?)…very impatient.  He loves participating in, watching and talking about sports, I just like watching sports (but if I do say so myself, I can hold a pretty good discussion about sports too).  He’s a night person, I’m a morning person.  I’m could be slightly neurotic, he’s very serene.  And the list possibly could go on and on, but let’s pretend it doesn’t.  After re-reading the above, it seems that I have all the ‘bad’ assets, soooo we’ll just stop the list riiiight there!

Despite these differences, what I appreciate most about Rob is that he doesn’t expect me to do what he does or react the same way he does in any situation.  And to me that’s one of the things that makes him nice.  I’ve been trying to follow Rob’s lead on this, because I too want to be nice.

To draw a parallel with one of my favourite things of all time – food – our differences can be likened to the many ingredients that goes into any meal.  All the ingredients are different; however, you need a certain level of understanding of how to bring out the most of any one ingredient to make the meal flavourful and enjoyable.

In ‘real’ life, the same is true.  It’s important to work with your differences to bring out the best in your spouse and in turn to help you become a more understanding partner, instead of expecting them to mirror your feelings, emotions and actions.  Still learning this one…

Working on nice,

T