Life > October 30, 2008

By Hannah Werthan | Staff columnist

I got into some trouble for my last She Said article (“Agreeing to disagree makes a maverick,” Oct.16).

My boyfriend questioned why we were together if I thought we had nothing in common. He said that I made it seem like we were together only by coincidence. I was questioned on the spot as to why I thought we were dating.

Unfortunately, perhaps the initial answer of essentially “uhh” was not so encouraging, but since then I’ve been able to figure it all out. And so I thought I would share this revelation with 5,000 other people.

From a young age, I somehow picked up that if you liked a boy, you should try to like everything he does.

I don’t know. I was a strange child. This idea has since led me down some unfortunate paths. For example, I’ve gotten ridiculous CDs and cringed while playing them in my room. Still, I listened in the hopes of appreciating them.

For a decent amount of time, I appeared to be an active supporter of the Communist party, all in the hopes of hiding my Republican roots.

The whole not-speaking-during-political-conversations thing probably just made me look stupid, but I couldn’t bring myself to actually verbalize any sort of socialist sentiment or, conversely, reveal that our political beliefs were certainly not compatible.

Things are clearly different now. I suppose I learned that the whole “being a follower” deal wasn’t really working out for the most part. I must say that I did pick up a few notable things from guys.

I developed my borderline obsessions for Coldplay, Keats, Hemingway and Mitt Romney, just to name a few. Therefore, it’s not entirely bad to learn from the opposite sex. Overall though, it’s important to be true to yourself.

So that’s where the whole “why are we dating” issue comes into play. I’m in this relationship not because we are completely identical to the point that it would be boring more than anything else, but, instead, I’m in it because I can be myself.

I don’t feel pressured to like everything my boyfriend likes and vice versa.

Another point I should have made clear in my previous article is that it’s not as if we have absolutely nothing in common.

I realized that perhaps I might have been endorsing relationships between people that are constantly fighting because they can’t find any common ground.

While my boyfriend and I have our disagreements and minor quarrels, we always resolve them and they aren’t very frequent.

I hope he doesn’t mind me saying this, but we’re both pretty big dorks so we always have a good time when we go out together.

Whether he’s making me eat part of a pepper we were told not even to touch or making me shift gears in his car when stick shifts scare me, I’m constantly laughing.

Even though he might get annoyed at my radio selections in the car and I don’t particularly enjoy when he tries to have a Boston accent (the attempts have thankfully decreased since the summer), we have learned to simply smile at each other’s shortcomings.

Furthermore, going back to the idea that you can take away some valuable things from guys, my boyfriend has taught me to appreciate nature a little more and, also, some music (though, for the record, I still can’t stand bluegrass).

In conclusion, the revised main point of my last article is that it’s good and healthy to have some differences of opinion in relationships, but you have to respect each other for it and also have some common ground.

The most important thing, of course, is to be happy. After all, isn’t that what college is all about?