by MAMAMIA TEAM
You can do lots of things in 40 days.
If you’re Goliath, you can pester the Israelites enough times that David decides enough is enough and breaks out his slingshot. If you’re Jesus, you can fast in the desert without dying. If you’re Phileas Fogg, you can go halfway around the world.
But, if you’re a couple of single 20-somethings, can you fall in love?
This is Jessica. And this is Tim.
They’re friends from New York City.
And, for 40 days this year, they decided to date each other.
They also both work as designers, which explains why their website documenting the whole experiment – dubbed ’40 Days of Dating’ – looked like this:
Trendy.
Each plagued by their own relationship problems (Jessica jumped into relationships way too early, while Tim admitted to often dating three girls at once, in order to avoid commitment), Jessica and Tim set themselves the challenge of dating each other for 40 days.
At the end of each day, they would fill out a questionnaire and post it on the blog. The aim of the experiment was to gain a fresh perspective on their dating behaviour.
They agreed upon the following rules:
You Just Got Fired... WTF Do You Do Now?
The Quicky
Top Comments
I just spent the best part of last night and this morning reading their entire journal. I liked it! Yes it was self-involved and excruciatingly introspective...but I think it was meant to be?
I enjoyed the premise! They're obviously both passionate and intelligent people who thought this would be a really creative "art" project, and it was. My only problem was that Jessie really seemed to want to immerse herself in the project and she really wanted to give it a chance and see where it led and what would come of it, whereas Tim acted like a sulking teenager who'd been forced into it. Jessie had stated a couple of times that she's really into psychology, and that psychology and art are her two favourite topics to read about and think about. So in that sense, I understand why she was probably a little bit more into the project than Tim was. I think she chose the wrong partner to undertake the project with. I know they had their reasons - their opposite dating behaviours meant that they would inevitably face issues which they'd have to work through - but it was almost like inevitable torture for her because they both always knew Tim would end up pulling away! So while I was reading, I wanted to slap them both because it was obvious that Tim had no real intention of changing or gleaning much from the experiment at all.
Still, anything where two humans have put so much time and effort and passion into designing and building a project like this - it deserves to be read!
I kinda think that you can force love. I think proximity generally leads to affection, especially between people where there already is a level of attraction preexisting. Arranged marriages prove this - most people who enter into arranged marriages report high levels of love and happiness years down the track (I'm talking about consentual adult arranged marriages, not dodgy old man-teenage girl forced ones).
I hope they can remain friends and colleagues.
Love happens. It happens willingly. You can never force someone to love you.