Tuesday, November 28, 2006

The Age Gap

I met a guy recently that is cute, fun and very sweet. He asked me out and I hesitated, but I ended up saying "yes." Why did I hesitate? Because he's 23. That's right, 23. For the record, I'm 31. I'll help you with the math. The Age Gap = 8 years.

Which means that he graduated from college just this year. He's at his first "real" job and living by himself in his first apartment. Meanwhile, I just finalized my divorce from my ex-husband that I was married to for 10 years. I've already owned my first home and I've had the same job (where I've moved up the ladder) for years. I feel like the difference in our life experience is huge.

I think it's probably too much of an age gap to really be able to successfully date, especially because at 23, he's not in any hurry (and rightly so!) to get married and have kids. Not that I'm in a "hurry," but I certainly don't want to date for five years in order to not rush a relationship.

If he were my age (or even just closer to my age), I wouldn't have hesitated for one second. Especially because, according to him, he definitely wants to get married and have kids. My worst case scenario side is guessing that this will end disastrously, but I must not totally believe that because if I did, I wouldn't have agreed to go out with him. When I started worrying, one of my friends pointed out that things could end disastrously with anyone, even someone my own age, which is absolutely true. And since no one else is really on the horizon at the moment, I'm free to do what I want. I might as well as go out with him and see how it goes. It's just dinner. And it's just a date. Plus, I think it'll be fun.

2 comments:

Seth Jaffee said...

Always look at the bright side.

Hey, at least the sex might be good (you know, since he's all young and full of vitality)...

Stephanie said...

Well I am the eternal optimist... so I will keep that in mind. One day, maybe I'll test that theory out!