<h3> The Right One</h3>

Ever since The Don and I announced our plans to get married, we have had to answer basically the same questions (albeit from different people) time and time again. (I suspect I am the one asked more often coz men dun usually ask their friends such things) Among the questions most oft asked are
"How do you know he's the one?"
"How do you know you are ready to settle down?"
"Don't you wonder if there are other men out there who's more suitable?" (I suppoz this question is asked bcoz we're each other's first relationship)

And you'll be surprised by the people who asks me. Relatives and friends are tolerable (I guess) but I've had these questions posed to me by people I didn't know from Adam. (Or Eve, in most cases!)Just because these people have a ring on their finger before me they think that makes them qualified enough to offer me advice. And if I were to compile the advice I've been getting, I bet it'd be like a chapter of "World's Funniest Jokes" - Everything from the best method of contraception to how to make your husband stay faithful to How to make your mother-in-law love you etc etc...But I digress.

So how do you know when you have found the "Right" one? My guess is as good as yours. There is no fool-proof way to know for sure. There is no litmus test to place on his forehead to see if he is "The One". But then again, there might be no such thing as "The Right One." Perhaps "Mr Right" is just some figment of some Hollywood scriptwriter's fantasies. Something concocted to boost box-office ratings. Something along the lines of "Prince Charming" or "Fairy God-Mother". Perhaps the basis for finding a life partner should be more mathematical. How many similiarities you have? How many traits do you share? etc etc. But neither is that a foolproof way. Sometimes it is these sheer differences that makes the relationship all the more interesting. Otherwise, the term "opposites attract" wouldn't exist.

At the end of the day, perhaps the only plausible way of discerning is your GUT feeling. How you feel when the person is around, does the person's value systems match your own, do you feel secure with him and if you can see him in your future etc etc. To put it in a simplistic way, when you get butterflies in your stomach when you see him even after many many years together and seeing each other everyday.

Then there is the story of age. Whenever I tell someone I will be getting married at the end of the year, one of the most common questions that follow is how old I am. When I say I am 24, they will go "Aaah.. that's the right age to get married." How in the world did these people settle on 24 as "the right age". Is there such a thing in the first place? So does that mean marriages that happen at other ages are not right?

No wonder girls of today starts to feel pressurised when they hit 25 and are still single and available. I hear your thoughts - "Easy for me to say after all I am getting married by the end of this year" - Perhaps, you have a point. But seriously I have no qualms about age. In fact, if you must know, both The Don and I feel that we are a bit too young to be married. Our initial plan was to tie the knot two years down the road. But certain things are just that way. They don't exactly turn out the way you plan, no matter how you twist and turn it so. Nevertheless, we take it as a blessing and choose to see it as destined. We believe that whatever happens is at God's will and that HE knows best.

Perhaps all those out there fretting about not being married should take the same view too. After all, marriage is not something you can devise and plan. And whether you get married at 16 or 60, its the happiness that is most integral. And about that much elusive "Mr RIGHT" .. have faith that he will come along when the time is right.

WHO'S YOUR MR RIGHT ????

- Do this quiz to find out...