Found out about the Personal Ads!!!

It is February and you know what that means? It’s trappin’ season. If you aren’t familiar with the term it’s when you lock your bae (beau) down. Winter in general is when the bait is laid for trapping. While I am lightly joking I do want to share some interesting love stories that I’ve experienced directly or indirectly throughout my life during this month of “LOVE.”  We’ll start with the first of these stories in this blog post…

When I was a kid, maybe around 8 or 9, I started reading the classifieds. I did this mainly because my mom told me you could find a job in the classifieds and I wasn’t interested in the comic section. I thought it was so cool how you could go through these classifieds and find a job, a toaster, and apparently a man. Now, let me clarify I saw the section that read, “Man seeking Woman”; however, at that age I had no idea what it meant until the one day I did.

About a year or so later we moved to an area of Louisiana called Marrero. It was suburban living at it’s finest. I started going to the neighborhood school and there was a girl at my bus stop that looked different. Of course I was a cruel kid and I said something to hurt her feelings. I don’t remember what I said but I guess I told my mom or another parent did and my mom made me go to her house and apologize. She also told me to be her friend and I did. I went to her house and said I was sorry and asked if she would like to be my friend and she said yes. Believe it or not she became one of my closest friends while we lived in that neighborhood. It turned out that her “difference” stemmed from a birth complication and she didn’t even hear what I said about her at the bus stop… (yes my apology was for nothing) because she was deaf on the side where I had been speaking.

Nevertheless, back to the story. We spent so much time playing together that naturally we talked about each other’s families. She asked about my dad and I told her I didn’t know him because that was the truth. I guess in an effort to make me feel better she told me she didn’t know her dad either. To which I said, “Then who is that man you call dad?” She told me he was her stepdad, and that her mother met him through the classified ads. When I tell you I was shocked! Clearly, I’m still in awe because I have a vivid memory of this event. I asked her to explain to me how that worked. She went on to tell me how in the section where jobs are posted there are also ads posted where people are looking for relationships. I’m guessing it went something like this: “White male, average weight and height of assuming age looking for a white female to spend life with. I’m not picky. Children are welcome. Looking to find love. Are you the one?” I don’t know, but maybe it read something like that. Basically, it is the “get to know me” section of every dating site minus the pic. Can you believe before Tinder, Match.com, Coffee meet Bagel, and any other dating site there were the classified ads in the newspaper (without pictures)? I was shocked (to say the least). My friend blew my mind and moved on to the next topic like a twitter post.

That day I learned that love finds us in all sorts of interesting ways but it doesn’t make it any less true. If you met your mate in an interesting way make it a statement piece, an atom bomb, a drop the mic moment because it is a drop the mic kind of love. If you are like me and waiting to be found by love or actively seeking love, be open to love finding you in the most interesting of ways. Love is patient, Love is kind, Love is pure… (I Cor. 13:4). This Love was a classifieds ad that got answered. Answer to Love because it’s always seeking you.

-With Love,

Juls