I came across this awesome blog called “Forty Days of Dating” and after spending hours reading on it, I knew I had to blog about it. The title intrigued me a lot so I decided to check it out. If only I knew, I would be hooked on for hours. This has to be one of the most interesting blogs I have come across in a long time and needless to say, I read all of it in a matter of hours. The feeling was similar to getting hooked on to a good book and reading it all in the matters of days.

Forty Days of Dating is a blog documenting a relationship/dating experiment by Jessica Walsh and Timothy Goodman. You can check it out for yourself.. here.

WARNING – you will be occupied for hours so grab yourself some hot tea and get comfy!

If you’re intrigued, you MUST stop reading this post at this point and visit the blog. SPOILER ALERT – I’m going to be talking about some moments that I found quite interesting so don’t read further if you intend to read the blog.

Day one starts off with two good friends (they had been friends for 4 years) starting their relationship / dating experiment in an attempt to explore and overcome their fears and inadequacies. Jessie and Tim have opposite relationship issues, Jessie being a hopeless romantic who falls for someone easy and quickly whereas Tim, more of a dating enthusiast and commitment-phoebe, dating many women at the same time but leaving as soon as things start to get serious. There are 6 rules to this experiment, main one being they would see each other EVERYDAY for 40 days, document everything they feel every single day, see a couples therapist once a week and so on.

During the course of 40 days, they grow personally and as a couple, realizing and working on their fears and issues, one by one. I love the simplicity of narration that this blog uses, going from day 1 to day 40 using the same set of questions for both Jessie and Tim. It is also interesting to read the male and female interpretation of the same event. Needless to say, there is lot of ups and downs, drama and fights during these 40 days. But then, there are also some really great moments, romance, cute dates, hand holding, lots of sex and cuddling to name a few.

I love how Jessie goes from being a control freak (I can so relate to this one!) to someone who is okay with letting things just “be”. She is a black or white person, who likes to either be single or be in a committed relationship, strongly disliking the grey area that so often comes with dating. This is amplified when Tim “isn’t sure” of what he wants from Jessie in the beginning, hence them going into this grey area of their relationship. Jessie, who cannot does not know how to deal with this grey area, QUITS on the experiment. Tim persuades her to come back on board allowing Jessie to learn through this experience. She becomes more comfortable with the grey area and even relaxing in Tim’s company going forward. Tim, who cannot commit to one woman, now starts falling for Jessie. He gets romantic and feels less pressured to give her a commitment. As days go by, they fall for each other and take things up a level and have sex. Jessie quickly falls in love with Tim and Tim confesses to really like Jessie as well. Tim also goes to say he no longer wishes to date other women apart from Jessie when their 40 days were up.

So some of my favorite moments were:

1. Jessie sending a text to Tim at 3:48am on day 8 (I think?) that she couldn’t do it anymore and they should just stay friends.
2. Tim paying on their first date and walking her home. (such a gentleman! I’m a total sucker for traditional dating manners.)
3. Tim rocking up to Jessie’s place with a single red rose when she’s feeling down. (very adorable!)
4. Jessie taking control of her health issues
5. Tim confessing how he likes her in glasses and hair tied up in a ponytail.
6. Jessie confessing how she loves waking up next to Tim.
7. Tim sends cute hand written notes to Jessie throughout the experiment. (OK! I confess I love hand written notes & love letters)

Towards the end of this experiment, they take a weekend trip to Disney World. Their trip ends on the 40th Day at 11:50pm with Tim getting off the cab and saying goodbye to Jessie and walking away.

As much as the readers would love to see a happy ending to this, they do NOT end up together in the end. I have to be honest, I was expecting a fairytale ending to this, with them realizing they were just meant to be, falling in love, getting married and living happily ever after. But this does not happen 😦 .LOL.

Regardless of how it ended, this blog was an interesting read and definitely gave me a lot of food for thought about dating and relationship issues, going from friends to lovers and back if it doesn’t work out and growing personally in all areas of life including relationships.

I also read that this blog is being made into a movie. I would love to see Bradley Cooper or Ryan Gosling play Tim’s character and Zooey Deschanel or Rachel McAdams play Jessie’s character. Will definitely watch this one! 😀

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Until next time,

Stay beautiful,

Upasana xx