{"id":93789,"date":"2018-06-10T21:44:57","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T04:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/10\/love-is-empowering-your-partner\/"},"modified":"2018-06-10T21:45:53","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T04:45:53","slug":"love-is-empowering-your-partner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2018\/06\/10\/love-is-empowering-your-partner\/","title":{"rendered":"Love is Empowering Your Partner"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today is my two-year wedding anniversary with Cindy, and wanted to reflect on love. What is love? Why is love important? How is love manifested in a relationship?<\/p>\n

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Randomness<\/h2>\n

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The funny thing about my relationship with Cindy: we met totally by chance\/randomly.<\/p>\n

We both met at UCLA as undergraduate university students, and came from two totally different worlds. We both met at UCLA Kyrie, a Catholic fellowship, and I knew Cindy since my freshman year, but didn’t actually start really interacting\/engaging her until my third Junior year.<\/p>\n

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Why did we start talking? Well, it was my dream\/ambition to travel the world, and to backpack through Europe. I knew Cindy traveled abroad in Paris, and I went to her for advice.<\/p>\n

Cindy taught me about backpacking, traveling light, hostels, and Ryanair. We started to spend a lot of time together, and realized that we actually had a lot more in common than we thought we did.<\/p>\n

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Just for your reference, from the outside, we seemed like polar opposites. I was this rude, crude, guy in college who liked to joke, party, and do ridiculous stuff. Cindy was the intellectual poet and scholar.<\/p>\n

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While Cindy was having wine and cheese parties, I was taking beer bongs and would party in Ktown.<\/p>\n

So when people heard that we were first dating, people were just confused.<\/p>\n

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Find a life partner whose dreams you believe in!<\/h2>\n

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Anyways so the first lesson is this:<\/p>\n

\n You seriously have no way of knowing who you are “compatible” with, or who you will end up thriving together in life with.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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I honestly think the best thing about going to UCLA was meeting Cindy. Why? UCLA was a filter: because it’s so hard to get into the school, the students who get accepted are generally hustlers, hard workers, and holistically interesting people. Therefore I don’t think I could have met a Cindy (she’s incredibly smart, talented, intellectual, artistic across many different fields, and hard-working) at a less rigorous to get into school.<\/p>\n

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I also found that personality isn’t that important for love. More important is sharing the same ethics, the same passions, interests, and a similar life ethic. For example, I’m an “ESFP” while Cindy is an “INTJ”. I’m an extreme extrovert, Cindy is more introverted. Cindy loves structure, I thrive off chaos and randomness and “going with the flow”. However our ethics and life philosophies are on the same page: we both believe in hard work, hustling, making stuff, the value of art, love for family and friends, as well as this spirit of travel, exploration, and innovation.<\/p>\n

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How does love get manifested in our relationship?<\/h2>\n

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I see love as an action; a series of everyday actions. Not an emotion.<\/p>\n

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For example, I show my love for Cindy when I get angry at her, and I bite my tongue and don’t say or do anything petty. I show my love for her by being patient.<\/p>\n

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Cindy shows her love for me by encouraging me, making me yummy morning coffee, and by helping me.<\/p>\n