Unrequited: The Woes of an EFY Counselor

6/22/2014 The Charmer 3 Comments

For those of you who are considering being an EFY counselor, I would HIGHLY recommend it. It is seriously the BEST JOB EVER. I also have a couple pieces of advice for you to live by:

a) Get ready to live out of a suitcase and be very, very tired. And don’t expect to have any REAL breaks. [This weekend, my “day off” was split between hanging out in an airport and snoozing on a plane heading back to Salt Lake from my outside-of-Utah EFY session. Then I get to jump right back in again tonight!]

b) Don’t fall in love with your co-counselor.

Obviously, since this is a dating blog, I am going to be focusing on point b. Because despite the fact that in my last post I claimed that I had no love interests, due to my ever humorous and ironic life, one showed up this week.
I must confess that I did not take my own advice. This week, I fell head over heels for my co.

First off, two important things happened on Sunday before the EFY week started. One was that in relief society, our teacher had us make the classic “what traits do we want in our husband” list. I hadn’t made one in a while and it was cool to see how my perspectives have changed since serving a mission (aka every bullet point was something spiritual with none of that “6’3” with brown hair” business). Another important thing that happened last weekend occurs every Sunday night as an EFY counselor. After a training meeting and a fireside, you get the list with your kids’ names on it and you get paired up with your co-counselor(s) for the week. Finding out the name of your co is definitely the most anticipated part of the evening, and a counselor’s reaction always falls into one of these three categories:

(1)”YESSSS!!!”,
(2)“…Wait, who is that?”, or
(3) “…really…?! Ugh. Oh boy. Here we go.”

My reaction when I got paired with my new co Nevada fell into category 3. Yes, my initial thoughts were, “…Really? Of course it would be him. Of course.” I didn’t know much about Nevada, but from what I’d seen of him the week before he seemed kind of arrogant. [Yes yes, I KNOW I shouldn’t judge people; it’s one of those lovely character flaws I am trying to work on!]

Well, despite the Pride and Prejudice beginnings to our friendship, the long story short is that the week ended up being one of the very best weeks of EFY I’ve ever had. We were a dynamic team, we had great co-ship unity, we taught really well together, and our company ROCKED.

And…oh yeah, I also ended up hard-core crushing on him. As preconceived judgments tend to be, mine were totally wrong, and he ended up being a really sincere, humble, and all-around awesome guy. But here’s the crazy thing—remember that list I made on Sunday? Throughout the week, he would literally say things that would make me do a double-take and wonder if this was some kind of divine joke since the things he said were word for word what I had written down. When I finally re-read the list on Thursday night, I realized with a shock that Nevada fit everything on it. This boy was quite possibly my dream man! After all, not only did he fit all the spiritual things I am looking for, but the boy can sing. And dance. My little heart could hardly handle it.

Of course, our kids caught on pretty fast that we seemed to be a good match and were relentless in their efforts to hook us up. If I even talked to another guy counselor during the week, I was met with the hurt faces of my kids accusing me of “cheating on Nevada!” Rather than finding it annoying, I found it hilarious. Besides, if I’m being honest, I liked it just a little bit because it meant I wasn’t the only one that thought we were a fabulous match.

But here’s the thing. Nevada was not interested. Sure, there were a few moments where he’d get a little flirty or play up our relationship for the kids, but the whole time he had his eye on another counselor. [This was confirmed when he chose to sit by her for the busride back to the airport rather than me.]

So my question is….what’s a girl to do? Should I just chalk it up as a loss and realize that I’ll probably have at least one more crushworthy co this summer? It’s tempting to admit defeat and take that option…but Nevada fit everything on my dang list. How often does that happen?

What would you do?

xoxo,
the charmer

3 comments:

F. McGee said...

We met once. You're a pretty awesome person. And you've done a lot of good for people like me. Worry not. Love will come out of nowhere and blindside you.

June 23, 2014 at 9:41 AM