
So How Did You Two Meet?
On Saturday I read an article in the Times about a wedding. There was a whole section in the paper with stories of how couples had met, and one in particular caught my eye.
The couple getting married were both actors and they’d met while preparing for a play. They were staying in a country house, and every morning they woke up early to dance in the opulent grounds as the sun rose. The guy admitted that the idyllic location made falling in love easy.
It wasn’t long before I was thinking of an intense romance from my own experience.
A Romance in Uganda
The story made me think of a girl I met when I was travelling in Uganda one year. It was an intense trip and I was working on a project with a quick turnaround in a very alien environment. We were drawn to one another with an intensity that I’ve never experienced since.
I’m sure the context was a big part of it. In fact, I’ve heard soldiers and aid workers often say that romance in war zones is far more intense than back home.
How is this useful? We can’t recreate intense situations… or can we?
Create an Exciting Moment
What we can do is try to avoid normal, everyday, boring ways to meet people. Going up drunk to a girl in a bar or club or isn’t not intense – it’s about as exciting for her as watching paint dry. So perhaps we can something different. Perhaps we can do something that can creates an exciting context.
Go up to talk to a girl in a new way, a way she hasn’t experienced before. Go and say hello to her in park, in the coffee shop or in the museum. Tell her why you’re taking to her. Be honest! If things go well, this will create an incredible moment between the two of you. And rightly so – it takes incredible reserves of metal strength to risk rejection in this way.
Use context to help you. Create an intense situation by doing something out of the ordinary, something she’ll always remember.





