The Dating Dope

Love–it has inspired millions of people throughout history. If you go back to famous art and literature of the past, most of it is inspired by love, whether by its tragedy or its joys. Love sparks a great rush of emotion in any human being’s life. It gives people a reason to live; it inspires and motivates. They say all things grow with love, whether it’s watering your plants or spending quality time with your loved one.

What’s so great about falling in love, anyway?

The best thing about being in love for me is that it brings color and excitement to life. Most of us have had that feeling before, and it’s something that can give you a million reasons to live. Being in love makes you live outside of yourself, living and pleasing another individual to find your own happiness. Love also teaches us how to be more giving and make sacrifices. More than often we will go out of our way just to make our special someone happy. In their happiness, we accomplish our own happiness as well.

Love is also known to have the power to change the most unchangeable of people. We hear many stories about so and so being like this in the past and suddenly changing for the better. I used to know a guy who was the real scrubby type; he had no concern of how he looked or acted in front of others, whatsoever. This changed when he fell in love. We would usually see him all cleaned up, a lot more courteous to people, and other things.

I also know a guy who never had a romantic bone in his body. He was typically one of the boys; someone you would never think of falling in love. He did change, and this change came from someone he just met a few months back.

Love can’t be measured, but it can definitely be seen or felt. It is also so powerful that it not only affects the people directly involved, but the people around them as well.

Have you ever lost your best friend to another person because they were in love? It does hurt, but if you think more about it, you couldn’t really complain about it since you can see for yourself that your friend is having the time of his life.

When in love, you find more of yourself through another person. You find satisfaction in being with them, pleasing them, doing things together. The challenge of love is trying to have two totally different people live in unison with each other. If this is accomplished, then you have sacrificed yourself, your whole being, your whole humanity, all for someone else. This starts to evolve as you start to learn how to live for others, as it becomes a lifetime commitment for you.

When you start to have a family, you learn how to live for your children, and as they grow older, your responsibilities grow even more. It gets difficult, but it’s very satisfying when accomplished. This is what love teaches us, self sacrifice.

As you go back to history, you will notice that millions of men and women have died in the name of love. Some people have died for the love of their country; others have died for their love in their beliefs. Some people have given up their lives for the people they love. This is the greatest thing we can learn from love.

The best thing about it is that, it is not something you think about before you do, but something more of an impulse, a feeling, an emotion. This is much more powerful than all the teaching taught in the history of mankind.

I can say that the best thing about being in love is that it expands our humanity. It makes us complete, and that is what being human is really about. Not living for your own existence, but being a part of something much bigger. “I” becomes “you,” your erroneous zones of selfishness and greed start to deteriorate as you learn how to live for others. This is the best thing that love has to offer. And the wonderful thing about it is that loves comes back to you, inspiring you to love and give more. It’s a process that leads to the perfection of the human spirit.

Quick Summary:

Value for money: 5/5 Features: 4/5 Design: 5/5 Member quality: 4/5

• Fun way of looking for love.
• The site has interesting and unique names for its features.
• You can’t contact people who are too different from you.

The Full Story

OkCupid.com has a tongue-in-cheek approach to romance. You can enjoy not only the probable fulfilment of your quest for that special someone but also a wide variety of other features. It seems that even before cupid’s arrow hits the bullseye, the dating site’s users can spend time enjoying browsing through the pages. Not only are members able to flirt with other members, they can also take some fun personality tests while waiting for a response. Browsing profiles is no chore, either. When you visit a profile, you get to know how “matched” you are to a person–as a friend/romantic partner or even as an enemy. There are also little cutesy icons that represent the profile owner’s personality.

Other site features

OkCupid works not only with a mythological bow but with a search engine that filters the persons you want to match up with. You can choose gender, age, height, location, ethnicity, and more. This is so that you can find your ideal girl or guy within your preferences and within a sane subset of profiles. Even the people you “woo” are limited to just three a day. In other sites, you wink at your prospect instead of wooing them. THe curious names that features have is indicative of how creative OkCupid is. But what makes the site creative may also make it a little less than user-friendly. A help section for “site” terms could help. I mean, how would newbies know that “stalkers” actually refer to those people who have viewed their profiles? What if they think that these are real stalkers to beware of? The site could be discouraging people from contacting potential matches. It is like rejecting that nice guy who you keep seeing around your area thinking that he is some perv trying to attack you when you are alone.

The humorous way in which dating is handled in OkCupid makes it one of the most popular free dating sites onlnie. It gets millions of hits. So, your choice of possible matches is definitely not limited. You may expect to encounter more people with a sense of humor than on some other sites, though.

Site layout

The layout is content-appropriate. The site is definitely portrayed as a fun way of looking for love or friendship during a time when people are more pessimistic or skeptical about finding something wonderful. You can email friends or potential lovers while amusing yourself with the overall look that makes up OkCupid. However, those who are looking for live chat and forums will be very disappointed. You will have to make do with the profiles themselves and email when getting to know a person. Of course, the risk here is that they can carefully compose something that they do not really believe in. Live chats are more spontaneous and therefore, more revealing. Still, you can still find your soulmate by taking a look at the match/friend/enemy percentages provided. The service is also one hundred percent free so you can keep looking for as long as you like. There is no monthly fee that can limit your time for looking at that one special person. I sure didn’t mind browsing and taking personality tests. OkCupid can double as an entertainment venue, after all. You can also get to know more about people based on the tests, as they have them posted in their profiles.

Oh yeah, another great feature of OkCupid is that you can make sure people you don’t like don’t get to contact you at all. Of course this is not a hundred percent accurate but will depend on what people put in their profiles. A person must match you at least fifty percent to be able to contact you. This is a relief because you wouldn’t want to be stuck with people who would just delay your chances of finding “the one.”

All in all, OkCupid offers a lot for a free site. This dating site may not help you get married but it sure aims to find you someone close to what you are looking for.

They say that love is a many-splendored thing, but it is also an act that requires more than attraction and affection. One important thing every couple needs is the trust between them. Without trust, a relationship will be unable to grow. One common misconception about trust in relationships is that you should not keep secrets from one another.

Why would not keeping secrets be a misconception? For one thing, every person is entitled to some kind of private life. In the initial stages of my relationship, I strongly believed in not keeping secrets. Unfortunately, that belief caused a strain on how we dealt with one another. I ended up forcing him to tell me everything instead of letting him tell me things out of his own free will.

When it comes to open communication, it’s important to let your loved one tell you things in their own time. Relevant revelations will come as you get to know each other more. There are some personal matters, which may take time to be told. Secrets will always be there, but in the end, it is still up to you whether to reveal them or not.

Keeping and revealing secrets is a tricky matter

Although everyone is entitled to a private life, being in a relationship requires a special level of intimacy. The secrets you reveal should be beneficial to how your relationship will develop. You don’t need to tell everything, but you certainly need to tell about things that matter to your loved one. Secrets that usually fall into this category relate to your past career choices, family dynamics, and past financial issues. The ex’s your current beau doesn’t know personally don’t need to be revealed. But if you have dated one of his friends prior to knowing him, then it’s definitely worth telling.

Of course, any human being is entitled to a private life. There isn’t a need to reveal everything about yourself to your loved one. There certainly are some secrets best kept. Such secrets usually involve issues only affecting yourself but have no direct consequences on your current relationship. The past can be kept in the past, as long as it isn’t haunting your present. Otherwise, not revealing haunting past secrets can risk your future together.

More personal secrets don’t have a strict rule in terms of their revelation. These kinds of secrets are eventually revealed when the relationship is given enough time to develop. Personal secrets involving acts we’re ashamed of can either be forgotten or forgiven (by your significant other). If you’ve reached the stage where you’re both perfectly comfortable with one another, then talking about mistakes in the past won’t be so difficult. Talking about such matters will further develop what you already have. In fact, your significant other might find it meaningful to hear these secrets. He or she will be able to learn more about you and have a better appreciation of who you are now.

In the end, keeping secrets should not get in the way of a relationship going to the next level. When revealed at the right time, secrets can make your relationship more meaningful. But if a secret is told too early, then you might have risked your future. However, certain secrets make good tests to determining if your significant other is willing to accept you for who you really are. There are parts of our past or even present that we might be embarrassed of. But if these kinds of secrets are revealed and your loved one still accepts you, then you know the two of you are on the right track.

Keeping too many secrets is another big no-no in a relationship. Sure, we have a right to a private life, but just make sure you’re not so private your lover doesn’t know who you are any more. Be consistent with what you tell them, so it won’t lead to having doubts about you and your relationship.

Trust is a tricky matter to deal with at first. But as long as you are cautious and confident in one another, then love can certainly do the rest.