Saturday, September 22, 2012

Finding a nice Jewish boy

I am a college student at the ripe age of 21 already looking to meet someone to "settle down" with. That term sounds miserable. The minute I hit 17, my family already started pushing the marriage wagon. I obviously thought they were cray cray. I was dating for fun in high school like your supposed to? I didn't care if the guys were Jewish. When I brought a goy home to try to rebel against my mom, she cleverly said in her Moroccan accent "its okay, I know your not going to marry him anyway." But now apparently, I am serious. I experienced a shift. Seeing family members not get married who are nearing the end of their 20's, I realized I need to get a move on. College is prime time. We have an Aish, a Hillel, and a Chabad. All prime meeting places for Jewish boys. At what other point in my life will I meet this many single, Jewish, eligible, optimistic, attractive men within my dating pool? Never. This is the time. I don't want to miss this opportunity but I also don't want to be crazy obsessively desperate either. In an age of technology, the only place these opportunities can spring up is the internet. People have lost touch with the idea of meeting new people in person. We are fearful to talk to strangers. Even I find myself obsessing over a text message. People could have crushes on each other and never know because we are a generation of scared dating wimps. So where does that leave me? Constantly going to Jewish functions to meet guys. I know I am not alone in this. Not that these functions don't have other purposes like instilling pride of my culture, but they have unique benefits when it comes to marrying Jewish. And I have not even began to mention what pressure for marriage looks like. An example from Lag Ba Omer during the dancing around the fire. My mom turns to me and says "Shai, you having too much fun, its no fun if you marry goy." She doesn't want me to lose out on the fun if I marry a none Jew. When I go to Israel and hang with her family there, they are always fantasizing about me marrying an Israeli guy and coming to Israel. In their minds, a goy is not even an option since they are surrounded by tribe members. On top of this, a few summers ago I went to what I can "Orthodox Training Camp" aka Jewel where all they could talk about is marriage. Some of the stuff was actually pretty interesting. But still tiresome on my mind. But here is the kicker, my dads family is the most pressuring. I went to Great Neck, NY for one of the infinite amount of weddings they have within my dads community. One of my dads older relatives came up to me and asked me if I was married and said she had someone for me. I was only 17! On top of that, every event I have gone to since then, someone always comes up to me and said in a thick Persian accent "I hope the next one is for you!" Its ridiculous. One night, my dad sat me down for a talking to. The whole time he was telling me how he wanted me to date and meet people and be pretty so I can get married. Like it was the end of the world if I didn't. Maybe its coming from the fact that he did not marry my mom till he was almost 40. But all of this and then my dads wife always asking me about dating stuff.  But the thing is, we all want to be loved and to be committed to. So I feel obligated to listen to all of this because I do want to meet someone special. But do I want to waste my heart on someone who is not going to be there for the long hall? This is why I feel almost having to date for marriage and to really take my dating life seriously. But this pressure does not clarify anything. Jewish ladies, if you know what I am talking about give me a AMEN! *emphasis on the men*