I have often found that somebody with very opposite traits to yourself can make the best partners. It’s not always the case, but when it does happen and it works it can be something pretty special. I was in one particular relationship where this was the case and while we are no longer together, I can still safely refer to it as a successful relationship.
I am a fairly socialist individual and widely in support of equality, human rights etc. I’m also fairly creative, spending a lot of my taking part in what would be described as creative pursuits. I love music, art. You get the picture.
Gregg, who I met through friends on facebook, was quite the opposite. While he was a very cool guy, he was also very Conservative, not just in the political sense, but also overall. He wasn’t a risk taker at all and his interests were anything but creative. He was a member of a chess club, sat on his local Parish council, had a CD & DVD collection that was catalogued and displayed on shelves in alphabetical order. You get the picture.
Our backgrounds were also very, very different. He was from a very wealthy family, attended an expensive private school and worked in his father’s successful financial services business.
Despite us being polar opposites, it worked. And it worked really well. I was able to introduce him to the sort of activities he otherwise wouldn’t have got involved with and I gained an interest in science fiction. But more important than all else… we connected on an emotional level. We were very much in love.
We complemented each other in so many ways. Where I fell short he would fill that gap and vice versa.
If circumstances were different and we hadn’t been taken into different directions, he most definitely would have been the one.
Rachel Hall, M.A., completed her education in English at the University of Pennsylvania and received her master’s degree in family therapy from Northern Washington University. She has been actively involved in the treatment of anxiety disorders, depression, OCD, and coping with life changes and traumatic events for both families and individual clients for over a decade. Her areas of expertise include narrative therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and therapy for traumatic cases. In addition, Rachel conducts workshops focusing on the psychology of positive thinking and coping skills for both parents and teens. She has also authored numerous articles on the topics of mental health, stress, family dynamics and parenting.
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