We're Not 'In a Relationship,' But We Seem To Have a Relationship.

one. It can be classified as a connection, association, or involvement.  A connection between persons by blood or marriage.  An emotional or other connection between people.  Or a sexual involvement.  While all of these different facts make up a relationship, they have one more thing in common: They all require living things.  If you really thought about it, would you consider yourself to have a relationship with your favorite chair or your favorite food?  Or would you be more inclined to say you have a relationship with your mom or your dog?  When it comes down to it, a relationship requires two beings linked together in some sort of way.

Sometimes you have to get to know someone really well to realize you're really strangers.

Mary Tyler Moore

two. In my mind, I thought relationships, as in "We're exclusive" and "We have feelings for each other," was more than sitting in the basement and making out.  I thought it was what I had with, we'll call him Conrad Dobler (My dad's nickname for 'THAT boy').  My idea of "going on a date" was going and doing something fun together.  We watched movies that we both really wanted to see.  We placed bets on our one-on-one pick-up basketball games we played.  And he kissed me.  And not in an “I want to get in your panties” sort of way but in a respectful “I’m doing this being I like you” sort of way.  And apparently that relationship we had was just a friendship.  Excuse me for getting the wrong idea.  So really what is a relationship?  Because I have plenty of relationships with people, heck, I have a relationship with every single person I know.  But my real question is, what makes two people “In a Relationship,” as we call it these days?  Because that relationship I had sure as hell wasn’t like my relationship with any of my other “friends.”

I think a relationship is like a shark. It has to constantly move forward or it dies.

Woody Allen

three. In relationships you have two options.  You can either choose to put yourself first, or you can choose to put the other person first.  For a relationship to be truly successful and healthy, both people must put the other first.  Unfortunately this is not the natural inclination for most.  Putting the other person first isn’t always the easiest choice, most of the time it is the hardest.  People act selfish and cowardly.  They think only of how the relationship is benefiting them and ignore how it is hurting the other person.  Anthony Hopkins once said "Some of the biggest challenges in relationships come from the fact that most people enter a relationship in order to get something. They're trying to find someone who's going to make them feel good. In reality, the only way a relationship will last is if you see your relationship as a place that you go to give, and not a place that you go to take." Relationships are about give and take.  They might not always be what you want them to be, but for them to work it is a necessity that both parties involved give more than they take.

Personal relationships are the fertile soil from which all advancement...all success... all achievement in real life grows.

Ben Stein

four. Relationships begin by meeting.  Meeting by chance or meeting by plan.  A bond is instantly formed, sometimes wearing away over time or growing stronger until it reaches a point where it will never be broken.  With each subsequent meeting, the relationship is enhanced and defined.  The definition of each different relationship is unique, because of every relationship is different, like the patterns on your skin or the sequence of your DNA.  Each enhancement can be positive or negative but nevertheless it still engraves the relationship’s definition even deeper into stone. They make up who we are. What relationships leave us with is a broad range of feelings.  They can make us unbelievably happy or unbelievably sad.  Sometimes we’re proud, guilty, brave, disappointed, resentful, strong, or a whole long list of other infinite possible feelings.
 

Our greatest joy-and our greatest pain comes in our relationships with others.

Stephen R. Covey

five. Family.  Friends.  Lovers.  These are really the three main types of positive relationships.  Family includes the relationships you don't get to choose.  They are instilled from birth and never vanish.  It is the only relationship that is capable of unconditional love.  Friends are the relationships you get to choose.  It seems like friendships are typically the easiest relationships to have because for some reason they bring out the best in us more than anything else.  Relationships with lovers are the most volatile.  They evoke the most intense emotions in us.   We hurt the most for them and we care the most for them yet they seem to last the longest.

You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you.

Frederick Buechner

six. It smells like your boyfriend’s cologne.  It sounds like your friend’s favorite song.  It feels like grandma rubbing your back until you fall asleep when she visits.  It tastes like your aunt’s turkey on Thanksgiving.  It looks like the picture of your first time on the Wild Thing with your brother.  The five senses of relationships are defined by the reminders of the people in our life.  It’s when you rub your own granddaughter’s back years later and remember your grandma, when you look at the picture and remember your brother, when you sit down for Thanksgiving dinner and remember your aunt.

ANSWER KEY:
1. Definition
2. Narration
3. Argument/Persuasion
4. Cause/Effect
5. Classification/Division
6. Example