Interviews

I have had a handful of interviews with various church leaders the last few months.

My last one with the Stake President went like this:

I sat down. He shook my hand. He asked me to tell him a little bit about myself. We then got down to business to renew my temple recommend.
He asked me the typical questions... finally asking me if I had ever been married.
I smiled (this was my mistake I suppose), and said no. He was about to continue when he said "You know, its ok to be aggressive."

My first thought: "Wow. I'm getting permission to go out and attack someone".

Honestly my first thought wasn't far from the truth.

He must have seen my raised eyebrow because he was quick to reply with "Guys sometimes need a little help, a little assurance that their approach isn't going to be turned down". (Well, he didn't say it EXACTLY like that, but I'm paraphrasing here as best I can.)

I was thinking in my head "where did I go wrong in this interview? Why has it turned to dating and how to catch a man?" WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME!

I think he read my thoughts because he went back to the interview questions.

The longer I have been home from my mission, the more this comes up in interviews... or even in happen chance meetings. Even those who are not church leaders are starting to nudge me on the subject. Pretty soon I fear the whole world is going to gang up on me. I shall have no rest until I become aggresive!

But why? Me, aggressive? (by the way, every time I say that word, the cheer "BE aggressive! BE BE aggressive!!" is chanted in my head. I am my own cheer squad without even meaning to).

I am not an aggressive person. Not one bit. In fact, I'm the opposite. I'm not an attacker. And why should I be? I understand not all of us can be so passive, we need someone to do the "attacking". But then, if we all became aggresive, who would be left to attack? It would be a bloody battle field of guy and girl hormones fighting over eachother. No one would win.
Perhaps the point my leaders have been trying to make is that too many of us young single adults are being passive and no one is being aggressive.

To that I say: To those of you who are being passive but were born aggressive, quit slacking and get to it. The rest of us passive people are getting an ear full on your behalf.