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Dear Breakup Girl,

I've started dating this guy Jesse. We get along great and have a lot of fun together, but we are so different! I'm a girly-girl from Cali who loves shopping and the beach, and he's a rough type from Iowa who lives for truck shows and strip clubs. For example, tonight he went with his friends to a wet T-shirt contest. When I heard that, I felt sick, not because he'll be looking at girls, just because I don't know anyone who does that! He's like a hick! I don't know what to say to him. Are we too different? Am I being too particular about what he's into? How can this work? Help!

--Laney

Dear Laney,

Well, let's say he was a GUYguy from Cali who loves shopping (for stuff for you) and the beach. You'd probably find his familiarity comfortable and appealing, and that's mighty fine. But in some sense, there's much to be gained from not dating one's clone. Breakup Mom and Dad, for example, are each from totally different backgrounds, and they -- not to mention me -- have each grown a great deal because of it. Like, now she can fry chicken. And people deal with the challenges of cultural difference (which, I may remind everyone, are not always color-based) in lots of smart ways.

What exactly you stand to learn, besides perhaps how to calculate engine displacement in cubic inches, I don't know. If I were you, I'd just motor along for now, trying to keep an open mind. Just as BG is trying to do about this whole wet T-shirt thing.

Love,
Breakup Girl

 
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