"Putting themselves out there" means everything beyond sitting at home alone and never leaving the house or communicating with the outside world. If you have any contact with society or people, you're "out there". And that's most people.
I can't speak for anyone but myself, but "social events" that are designed to hook people up with the opposite sex would make me queasy inside. I'm an introvert. I can tolerate other types of social settings (Ren faires, comic cons, festivals, heck yeah) because they're centered around something that interests me.
I don't think women enjoy working from home because they're trying to avoid getting hit on, lol. Not at all. I think they just enjoy working from home, simple as that.
You and I have had this difference of opinion before, and I don't want to rehash it again. But "putting in effort" - in my opinion - means just living your life, being a productive, active citizen of the world, trying to do some good, and trying to become the best version of yourself, however that looks for you. MOST couples don't meet in bars or on dating apps; they meet while simply living life. They're introduced by friends, they meet at church or at work or in the checkout line at the store. Simple things. Just living life. Honestly, if I see a man trying impress me by like...going to the gym every day and bragging about his bank account or his car, I am immediately, completely turned off. That's not any sort of "effort" that's going to attract me.
Also, extra points to you for the LOTR reference, lol. Such a sad, sad story about the Entwives.
I'm honestly not sure how most couples meet. Part of my problem I guess.......
It seems like one day someone is single, the next day they have someone. You want to find out how they met, but they're already in the relationship. Asking just seems......the wrong thing to do. It's hard to explain. Like you're being unncessarily nosy & asking questions that are 'off-limits.' Like 'they met somehow, they're in a relationship now, like them how they are now, end of story', try not to be selfish in seeing how you can benefit from their relationship -> that's
exactly what it is. Not wanting to come across as desperate & selfish myself.
Geek, as I've been progressing the past few weeks, I realized how poor I do in day-to-day interactions w/ strangers. I'm not talking about like events designed to be social, I mean like at the grocery store or bank & stuff, like running errands. In the past I've always felt like it's a waste of time -> it's someone you're never gonna see again, why bother being friendly to the cashier, or employee who says 'how can I help you' for example? I would think 'it's their job to be friendly, they wouldn't otherwise be acting like to that you if they weren't getting paid for it. In fact, they'd probably be rejecting you for whatever reason.'
Now I'm realizing that's a pretty selfish attitude. Lately when I've been going out in day-to-day life like you talked about above, I've been trying harder, even looking for situations, not because I'm looking to get anything out of it, but because it's the correct thing to do b/c God has shown me that same mercy & love. As an introvert, it was always really hard to do that b/c you don't the point.
I shouldn't say now I know. B/c I've always known this, but now it's like, now I want to commit to it. I don't want it to be a 'do it for 3 weeks & then the motivation dries up' like it is in the past. No, not this time. This time I want to be committed to this. God doesn't tell me 'I've shown mercy & love to him for 3 weeks, now I'm done till I feel like it in a year again.'
I really, really, really want to emphasize that only b/c of what God shows me do I want to do this. This comes really really easy for a LOT of people (probably like all extraverts), but as I said, I just couldn't understand why I should do something because someone said it's the nice thing to do once a long time ago & 51% agreed with him. 'What's the point of going out of my way to be nice to a random stranger I'm gonna see for 30 seconds & then never ever ever see again.'
My point is: yes, I can totally see how it'd just happen in day-to-day life, 'it'll happen when you're not expecting it', when you're looking for opportunities to share God's love & mercy to you for others because that's just what you do, eventually you'll just run into someone who reciprocates that. I'm not convinced this is how it'll happen to me, I think I'm just too unique to randomly meet someone throughout my daily routine & have a hard time understanding how you'd see that person on a consistent basis to build any sort of familiarty, & I'm 90% postiive If I meet a wife, it'll be thru a church function, but I can totally see what you're trying to get at.
(I have a buddy who is CONVINCED he's going to meet a cashier. He's been telling me for YEARS I need to start being more conversation-ish with them, & I've ALWAYS told him 'they probably get hit on by every single man who comes in here, what's the point' - Answer -> it's the right thing to do because you're not looking to hit on her, you're just a good guy in general)
(Knowing how things work, I'll meet the cashier, he'll meet the girl at a church function -> he technically did already but they broke up, so I guess I'm due to meet the cashier. You KNOW that's how it's gonna work considering God's sense of humor ha ha)
Yeah, I'm sure they definitely they like just working from home. Bad! Or the ones that don't chose jobs you can't. Hmmm........
That's the one I found but I don't think that's it. He's just singing the song. Or did I miss it? I want the story behind it.