I know that most people don't believe in love at first sight, and to be honest, I'm not much into the sappy romance stories that are the basis for many novels and romantic movies, but I do believe it happens for some people. It happened that way for my parents, or for my dad anyway. For me, however, I believe that "falling in love" will be different than that. I enjoyed listening to the devotional by Elder Chadwick that talked about how there is not a "one and only" person or soul mate for most people. The truth is that most people will probably have a variety of people that they would work well with and fall in love with and I think that is true for me as far as being in love with someone that I am dating, but if I was to be married, my spouse would be my one and only.

Last month, I started exclusively dating one of my best friends, Jeffrey Ashcraft. I enjoy this relationship with my now, boyfriend. I like to be able to talk to him and to listen to him. I like being around him and I like being able to spend time with him and go on dates with him. I also like it when he holds my hand, although so far we have not done that much. I believe that on a lot of levels, I love Jeff. I love him as my friend. I can see the great person that he is and I like that  he inspires me to be better. I also care about Jeff and love him, even though I know that he is not perfect and even though he makes mistakes. I know that I am not perfect either and that I make mistakes as well, so I do not expect perfection from him. In these ways, I love Jeff, but as far as the romantic kind of love, I am not entirely sure if I feel this for Jeff right now. I know that he is attractive to me, inside and out, but I do not know what exactly this solely passionate love is about and I do not know as was mentioned in class if I am ready to marry Jeff or if I want to marry him yet, but I do know that I want to continue to date him and only him right now, so that we can figure out if we later do want to get married. I am grateful for the chance to date and to go through all the different steps of dating. For me, this seems to be very beneficial and logical, but I recognize that dating and love do not happen the same for everyone and just because this is right for me does not make all other dating and love experiences wrong.