All of us – tomboys-drama queens, low maintenance-high maintenance, good girls-rebels had our ‘perfect guy’ dreams. Most of us did not ever make such lists, these lists are very subliminal, made through trial and error during teenage and early twenties and maybe now when we are in our mid-twenties, the sacred list is more or less frozen (or maybe I’ll look at this 10 years from now and say, 25 year olds are so smug. Little did she know!)
So without much ado and armed with a sample set of preferences from my girlfriends, let’s define this elusive, ever-changing list shall we?
At 13
· Resembles ________ (fill in the blanks with nick carter/Justin timberlake/ronan keating etc)
· Likes to dance at mixed parties (unlike other boys his age who think they are ‘too cool’ for dancing)
· Knows all the Backstreet Boys songs by heart
· Very popular in school but thinks I am the cutest girl in the class
· Makes me laugh
· Remembers birthdays and most importantly Valentine’s Day!!
At 17
· Resembles _______ (kurt cobain/eddie vedder/jim Morrison etc)
· Not only does he know all of Nirvana by heart, but can play an instrument (preferably the guitar) and if he’s in a band, he’s golden
· Long hair, facial hair is preferable – the scruffier, the more bad boy the look, the better
· Girls throw themselves at him but only I rock his world
· Makes me laugh
· Has read more than 1 book in his life besides jim morrison’s biography
At 21
· At this point, he does not need to resemble anyone, but tall, dark and handsome does help
· Trips on Pink Floyd, Led Zep, The Beatles (must think Waters>Gilmour, John>Paul)
· Can hold lengthy discourses on the auteurs and whether the simpsons is a better show than south park in the same breath
· Has read a lot of Kafka, Hemingway, Orwell but his favourite books are Tolkein, Pratchett and Asimov
· Makes me laugh
At 25
And herein lies the change, the big leap. Suddenly the list as you know it is dissolved and you realise that it’s all about the je ne sais quoi…that certain something that he has that you love. Yes, he is good looking, witty and sarcastic and reads/listens to/watches everything you love or respect but that’s not why. It’s so much more, it’s an indefinable quality and then you tear away all your lists and realise that hey, for once, reality does trump dreams.
