Posts Tagged "same interests"

Must you Both Love the Same Sport?

Posted by Elle on Feb 14, 2012 | 2 comments

Yesterday Adventure Journal launched a new poll: Must your Partner Share your Sport? It’s a very interesting issue: You love rock climbing- is it a deal breaker if your partner doesn’t? Must you both love the same sport? I’m glad that Adventure Journal brought it up, but their poll has a critical error- The only two responses are yes or no. No matter which you choose, you are leaving the heart of the issue on the table.

Personally I feel that you must have both. How could you possibly have a happy marriage if you don’t have anything you can do together? How can you be strong individuals within your relationship if you do everything together? Once again-we wind up with conflicting love advice:

• Birds of a feather flock together
• Opposite’s attract

Let’s look at differences: I’m pretty gung-ho about yoga (as evidenced by my BLOG). I’ve been doing yoga since Freshman year of high school and will be doing it well into my hundreds. Garret isn’t much for being pretzely but he has come with me to a few classes here and there, we went to Wanderlust together last year, and he is willing to try it out whenever there is something I’m particularly enthused with. Does that mean he’s hooked? Not at all. Most mornings my asanas are me-time.

On the other hand- Garret has been into cycling since he got his first Schwinn Moab and was bragging to his friends about his front suspension. I’ve made several attempts at cycling over the years (see cycling team failure, tandem failure) but it definitely scares me to death and requires too much gear. I also freeze to death when I cycle but I will give it a try on the occasional warm day to get to spend some time together in the sun.

Over the years we have accumulated other activities that are mostly separate. Garret likes to surf, I like to swim, etc. That is totally fine, and totally necessary, but only if you also have activities that are shared. As evidenced by the awesome doodle that Google shared for Valentines day, if all you can do together is snuggle- you might find something missing in the grand scheme of things!

In addition to our separate interests, Garret and I also have many activities that we both love equally: backpacking and camping, rock climbing, snowboarding, and many more to come! What we have in common is an adventurous spirit which is why we continually find things that we both enjoy doing together.  And when we find another activity that we both love, we love it even more because we get to do it together. At the end of the day, what is most important is that we love each other and trying new things together.

I guess this puts us square in the middle of the Adventure Journal poll. But HEY, today marks our 9th Valentines Day together and I couldn’t be happier! I’m officially married to the best husband in the world and I can’t believe how blessed I am to this day! Whichever activities will come and go in our lives: Our love is forever.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!