And then, having met someone, for the young couple it's "meet the parents"...basically for approval..
In my case, I wasn't quite what the girl's mother had in mind as a boyfriend for her daughter.
When I was attending acting school, I had chronic pain from an automobile accident, so I went to a chiropractor, and the chiropractor loved me and she said that she would buy me a Porsche if I married her daughter, she wanted me as a son-in-law. She was joking of course, and I never met her daughter.
For me the challenge has been to make money to buy a home and to take care of a family, a man has to be a good protector and provider, a man has to earn enough money to provide a home for his family. So, I worked hard, and I was trying to earn money and have a career so that I could take care of a family. As a Kid I washed dogs for my Grandmother to help her to earn money to buy food and to pay the rent, and I ended up managing a dog kennel where we worked. I worked hard and built up the kennel, but the owner was a cheap-skate and he was a child of the Great Depression, and he did not share the wealth that I helped to earn. I had movie stars as customers, Daryl Hannah and others, and I could have been dating the women who came into the kennel if I was respectable and if I was paid well. But, I was under-paid, and I just felt like slave labor, and there was no way that I could date any of the classy women who came into the kennel. Then after I quit the kennel it just got worse, I worked harder and harder for less money. So, I went back to school to try to make myself more valuable so that I could make money and have a family. I went and got my Associate in Arts Degree, and I attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, the women love actors, and the actresses are beautiful women, and acting pays a lot of money if you get in with the right people. But, I never made it in the Entertainment Industry. So, no money, and no family.
Of note, I am a poet, and a writer, along with being able to act, so my poetry book that I wrote and my movie script might hold the keys to the future. If I can make money from my Poetry Book, and my Movie Script, then maybe I can open a night club in Rome, Italy, and I can cook for my customers, and maybe find a wife in Italy who can help me run the night club. There was a television show named "Northern Exposure" and on the show there was an old man who owned a restaurant and he was married to his young hot waitress, and I could be like that. I can have a club and I can be married to my waitress. And also maybe buy a vineyard and winery in Tuscany to pass down to future generations so that they will always have a home and an income as long as the family owns the winery and sells wine.
We will see what happens. When I went to the Chapman film school to check it out, I saw a beautiful woman as I was walking to the film school from the bus stop, she looked like Veronica Lake, she was beautiful, and I said "Hi" and she was cool and she said "Hi" back. I might meet a woman at the film school who wants to write and produce television shows and movies with me. When I worked at Universal my fellow employees wanted for me to buy the studio someday, maybe I can meet a woman who wants to own a movie studio. I do not know what the future has in store.
I would have had a wife and a family a long time ago if I had money, if my family owned the dog kennel where I worked then I could have dated a movie star who was a customer of the kennel. But, if you are just some poor kid from a poor family then you do not get to date the movie stars. And I had a beautiful friend who I grew up with who I loved, but I could never take care of her, I could never afford to buy her a home and feed her.
And it is bad for ones self esteem to be poor, you feel worthless, and you do not feel like the women even are interested.
But, at least I am not an illegal drug dealer, and I am not involved with the drug addicts, I am a good honest man who tried to do right, and who would have worked any good honest job in order to provide for a family, it just never worked out.
I just have to try to make the most out of however much time I have left.
Salute,
Tony V.