Marie Claire Marie Claire
  • Celebrity
  • Fashion
  • Beauty
  • Culture
  • Power
  • Nice Talk
  • Style At Large
  • More
    • Politics
    • Career & Money
    • Health & Fitness
    • Power Play
    • Travel
    • Promo Codes
    • Food & Cocktails
    • About Us
    • Subscribe
    • Sex & Love
  • Newsletter SIGN UP TO OUR NEWSLETTER
  • Marie Claire
    Marie Claire Newsletter

    Celebrity news, beauty, fashion advice, and fascinating features, delivered straight to your inbox!


    By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

    You are now subscribed

    Your newsletter sign-up was successful


    Want to add more newsletters?

    Marie Claire Daily

    Delivered daily

    Marie Claire Daily

    Get exclusive access to fashion and beauty trends, hot-off-the-press celebrity news, and more.

    Marie Claire Self Checkout

    Sent weekly on Saturday

    Marie Claire Self Checkout

    Exclusive access to expert shopping and styling advice from Nikki Ogunnaike, Marie Claire's editor-in-chief.

    Maire Claire Face Forward

    Once a week

    Maire Claire Face Forward

    Insider tips and recommendations for skin, hair, makeup, nails and more from Hannah Baxter, Marie Claire's beauty director.

    Livingetc

    Once a week

    Livingetc

    Your shortcut to the now and the next in contemporary home decoration, from designing a fashion-forward kitchen to decoding color schemes, and the latest interiors trends.

    Homes & Gardens

    Delivered Daily

    Homes & Gardens

    The ultimate interior design resource from the world's leading experts - discover inspiring decorating ideas, color scheming know-how, garden inspiration and shopping expertise.


    An account already exists for this email address, please log in.
    Trending
    • The Stan Smith Revival
    • New Books
    • Postpartum Texts
    • Life In Plastic
    • Blurred Blush
    1. Sex love

    5 Most Romantic Ways To Fall In Love

    Does love require beating the odds, versus being convenient?

    By Rich Santos
    Published 12 November 2010 In Features

    When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

    • Facebook
    • X
    • Pinterest
    Share this article
    Join the conversation
    Follow us
    Add us as a preferred source on Google
    Subscribe to our newsletter

    Does love require beating odds, versus being convenient? You can:

    Fall in love by shooting the moon. You win over your unreachable target despite the odds against you.

    Fall in love out of convenience: You settle out of necessity: it's more about partnership than passion.

    Latest Videos FromMarie Claire
    Watch full video here:

    I'm searching for a love story.

    Often, my friends say: "Just go for her. She's so in to you," about a girl I'm not into. It's like saying: "Well Girl A that I really want doesn't like me, but Girl B who I'm not into at all likes me, so I'll just give up and go for her."

    I want to fall in love by conquering barriers, so I often look for situations with barriers.

    Here are a few examples of romantic "barriers":

    Against All Odds

    Marie Claire Newsletter

    Celebrity news, beauty, fashion advice, and fascinating features, delivered straight to your inbox!

    By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

    I'm guilty of looking for the ultimate beauty, perfect girl.Because she's so perfect, it will be an uphill climb for me to win her over, but if I do, won't life be perfect?

    Love at First Sight

    When I'm out I sometimes spot that glowing girl, standing out in the crowd. I get tunnel vision, and I never forget her. I build her up in my head, wonder what it would be like to date her.

    But there are so many steps between "glowing phase" and dating...and it never happens. I usually leave the bar, eat chicken tenders, and pass out...and never see the girl again. Or, I talk to her and we don't connect.

    Serendipity

    This is the classic bumping into each other on the street. I never get serendipitous moments, but once I sat next to an attractive girl on the train. It's tough to know if a woman wants to deal with a random guy when she's traveling. She noticed me reading US Weekly, anyway, which probably took me out of consideration.

    The Vampire Event

    The Vampire Event is when you know someone is right for you,

    and you wait through jerks they date,distance (sometimes) and other barriers. This patience is mixed with persistence-there's a little chasing, but it's subtle. After waiting, believing they are the one, it finally happens one day.

    A couple of my older sister's friends had a vampire event. The guy was in love with the girl from the beginning but she wanted to be friends. He accepted this, remained patient, watched her date jerk after jerk-and he was always there for her. Of course, they eventually ended up together.

    Waiting for someone...or being undead and finding a girl who you used to love back in the day who is reincarnated in modern times is romantic.

    High School Sweethearts

    Any love story between two people that starts in childhood through college is a great story. Often, there are barriers in this-breakups due to life changes, someone goes off to war and realizes he wants to settle down upon returning, etc. Through all the changes, the love endures, and that history the two people have together is unique.

    Many people are "ready" once they decide it's time to settle down with a life partner, abandoning the inconvenient "against all odds" love story.

    The search for a love story might look like "thrill of the chase," but I call it "thrill of the win, against all odds." I want to be able to tell my children a love story and not a convenience story, such as:

    "Well, kids, your mom was feeling her eggs getting stale, and your dad feared that his seed count was getting low.Plus all our friends were married. So, we decided to combine our bank accounts, get married, and have all 2.5 of you."

    Unfortunately, my "romantic" side wants the love story-full of tragedy and triumph-even beyond the ho-hum date 1, date 2, date 3,meet the parents...

    When I sat in on that Zoosk panel a few months back, the panel doctor cited research that proved arranged marriages actually had a high success rate: two people start low, but the love builds as they work together in the household and get to know each other. In our society, we start at a high point: ideally we get married when we fall in love, or think we're in love.And maybe, by starting high, we have nowhere else to go but down.

    So maybe there's something to be said for the "convenience" side of love.

    What are your thoughts on the above? Have you ever had a love story, or are most of your relationships about convenience? Do you look for situations with barriers to conquer, or is this unhealthy? Do you think some of us will never find a love story-is it all about luck?

    Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/richravens

    Explore More
    relationships Romance dating marriage
    Rich Santos
    Latest in Sex love
    Two women covered in blood (Gillian Anderson as Billy and Hannah Einbinder as Kris) stand closely together in a convenience store aisle, with their intertwined hands on a cart. A still from Jane Schoenbrun's 'Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma' (2026).
    Movies Everyone Has Thoughts About Gen Z and Sex. 'Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma' Gets It Right
    Princess Diana wears a shimmering blue mini dress and carries a matching blue silk clutch bag
    Royals How Diana Navigated Being a "Newly Divorced Princess"
     
     
    Queen Camilla wears off-white and pale green on her wedding day, including a white hat, to marry King Charles in 2005
    Royals Why Queen Camilla "Felt a Little Broken" on Her Wedding Day
    Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are married at Madison Square Garden and a sign announces their nuptials outside
    Celebrity What Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce Said in Their Wedding Vows
     
     
    Latest in Features
    stansmithcollage
    Fashion The Stan Smith Is Getting Another Turn
    purple background with models wearing blush and the milk makeup cheek and lip cream blush stick
    Makeup I Can’t Stop Wearing the Blurred Blush Trend
     
     
    the best nail looks of the week feature six images with three polishes and three fall nail designs
    Nails Fall's Top Nail Trends Have Gone to the Dark Side
    a black woman brushing her teeth with a pink Dyson Camera Jet over a black and white photo of two people with open mouths and white teeth
    Beauty I Ditched My Analog Toothbrush for a $500 Replacement—Is It Worth the Price Tag?
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Marie Claire
    RSS
    • About us
    • Contact Future's experts
    • Contact us
    • Advertise Online
    • Newsletter
    • Terms and conditions
    • Privacy policy
    • Cookies policy
    • Careers
    Add as a preferred source on Google Add as a preferred source on Google

    Marie Claire is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

    © Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.