Saturday, June 18, 2011

Today's fortune: June 18, 2011

Today's fortune: You have an unusual magnetic personality for success to come.

Magnetic and unusual? Way to compliment me and criticize me in the same breath, fortune cookie.

But maybe the two go hand in hand. Maybe you can't have a magnetic personality unless you're a little bit unusual. Maybe unusualness makes you magnetic.

The best examples of my unusual magnetic personality coming into play would be in group situations. There have been a few occasions when I've been around a tight group of people for a sustained period of time. One was an internship in Washington, DC; another was when I worked at the U.S. Census Bureau last year; the most recent was my seven-week training session at Acme Co.

In each of these instances my unusualness came through early. People tend to shy away from me at first. But after a few hours, or even a few days, people seemed to draw toward me. Magnetic. In each of the above-referenced situations, I've always come out of it with a strong group of friends. And to this day I still count almost all of those people as my closest friends.

I would consider all of those friendships as significant successes.

For some reason, the one exception to this rule was high school. I don't know why. Maybe because the structure was more loose, and it lasted longer, and I was not yet grown up. Perhaps I was not magnetic back then, just unusual. Whatever the reason, I don't have a lot of friends from high school.

The greatest and most important success I've ever had was the result of my unusual magnetic personality.

"You could write about the time you almost ruined our relationship - on our first date," Jamie told me when I revealed today's fortune to her.

Ahh, the first date. We met at Crown Center, ate at the Crayola Cafe and walked around. Then we got lost in the skywalks connecting Crown Center with Union Station. Finally, we ended up at a restaurant for dessert. Everything was going well. But at that restaurant, I asked her a question that I thought was critical for first dates.

"So, what are you looking for in a guy?"

Jamie rolled her eyes and laughed, and said, "No. Absolutely not. You can't ask me that."

Remembering back to it this morning, I wanted to know: "How exactly does that stupid question I asked display my unusual magnetic personality?"

"I really clammed up when you did that," Jamie said today. "Or at least I wanted to clam up. But there was something about you that I was drawn to. There was a confidence, and a light, in you. I had a feeling that there was so much to you, and I had to find out what that was."

After I dried my eyes, I said, "That's really sweet. But what was unusual about it?"

"That's what was unusual. Here you were, freaking me out with this dumb, cliche question, but I still wanted to get to know you despite that."

Our relationship has revolved around me acting unusual, but Jamie still wanting to be around me. It's the most perfect union I could ever imagine.

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