Rose and Jared
The following is the transcript of this podcast episode.:
Jodi: Welcome, Rose. It is really nice to have you on the podcast today. Thanks for being here.
Rose: Thank you. I’m honored to be here.
Jodi: As our listeners know, here at First Date Stories we’re all about women’s stories. Let’s start off talking a little about your personal story.
Rose: I’m 48 years old. I am a multifaceted entrepreneur. I have quite a few businesses. I juggle between the different businesses. I do a lot of work empowering women through my different services and products and I keep myself quite busy.
Jodi: You’re really making a difference in people’s lives, in women’s lives!
Rose: Yes.
Jodi: What about relationships? What is your “relationship status”?
Rose: I am single. I was married. I actually don’t like the term “divorce”, so I never say “I’m divorced,” because I was married to a wonderful man. We had a really beautiful chapter together. Often divorce, it comes with feelings of negativity and that was never our relationship. I have very fun memories of our time together. So I just say “I’m single and I’m grateful.”
Jodi: Let’s shift gears and talk about the date. Who did you go out with?
Rose: I went out with a gentleman named Jared.
Jodi: How did you and Jared meet?
Rose: We met in the town that I work in. He was helping out with an event. He was in town visiting from France and our eyes met actually, and we just had this really beautiful connection. We talked for about 10 minutes and had a lot of chemistry between us. He gave me his card. He said, “I’m on a flight tonight back to Europe. Please look me up. I would love to connect with you and I’m captivated by your smile.”
Jodi: Wow! You’re saying that you were just walking down the street and you saw this man?
Rose: Yeah. And our eyes met and we just smiled.
Jodi: And you stopped in your tracks?
Rose: I had to stop in my tracks because there was a wine and food festival going on and the sidewalk was packed. I actually had to naturally stop right in front of him because he was helping out his friend who was orchestrating the festival. I wasn’t going to the festival. I was going to go meet someone.
Jodi: How long did you two spend talking to one another?
Rose: About 10 minutes and then we started emailing and about 10 days later I was on a flight to France.
Jodi: You were?
Rose: So my first date is actually my week with him in France.
Jodi: Your first date took you to France?
Rose: Well, actually we met in Spain. I serendipitously had friends that were going to Spain. They had chartered a boat and he kept saying like, “When are you going to come to Europe? I’d love to show you around.” And then my friends a few days later were like, “Yeah, we’re going to Spain on this boat.” And I was like, “Oh my God! Is there a room?” And they’re like, “Yeah, a couple just canceled.” So I emailed him and I was like, “Okay, I know this is crazy, but I was invited to go on a trip. There’s a space for two people in Spain and it just seems like such a magical experience. Is there any way you would want to come and meet me?” He wrote just the most exquisite email back. There was so much chemistry in our emails. He wrote, “Wow! This is something out of a movie. I would love to. And if you wanted, we could rent a car and we could drive along the coast and back to where I live in the South of France.” So I was replied, “Okay, that sounds magical. Yes!”
Jodi: It sounds incredibly magical and it does sound like something out of a movie! But it was your life. This happened in real life!
Rose: Yeah.
Jodi: Take me back to the email exchange. How did you get a sense of who he was through what he wrote?
Rose: Because we didn’t know each other very well and in the short amount of time, the 10 minutes, we were talking, we were talking about our passion for travel. He is from Australia originally. He lived in Australia for many years. Now he lives half the time in London and half the time in France. So we were emailing about our passion for travel and what fills our heart and soul. There was just a lot of flirtation in the emails and a lot of desire on both of our parts.
Jodi: Is Jared about the same age as you?
Rose: I am 48 and he is 59.
Jodi: Were you attracted to him the first time you saw him on the street?
Rose: Oh, very attracted. He looks like George Clooney.
Jodi: Oh gosh!
Rose: Yeah.
Jodi: Okay! What happened next?
Rose: He was actually in London at the time and he said, “You could fly into London and from there I’ll book our flights to Spain and I’ll take care of everything once you get here.” So I booked my flight and he picked me up at the airport and we kissed on the lips and hugged. He said, “I can’t believe you’re here!” And I said, “I can’t believe I’m here!” It was so surreal because I just met him for, literally, 10 minutes!
Jodi: When you got off the plane, how did you identify him? Did he look exactly like he looked when you saw him on the street?
Rose: Exactly! Yeah. We went back to where he lives and dropped off my stuff and then we just had like a sweet day strolling through the park. I had a little jetlag at one point, so I went back and took a nap. Then we went out to dinner. We were very attracted to each other and had a lot of amazing making out and making love. It became the most incredible week and I went there with no expectations. At this point, my heart and soul just need this so deeply and badly that whatever happens, happens.
It was magical! It was interesting because we spent eight days together. Everything about the trip…we flew to Spain the next day, to Mallorca, and that was incredible and it was just so fun like flirtatious, strolling hand in hand. Again, once I got there, he took care of everything, which is really lovely. He was a total gentleman with such a sweet, sweet soul and heart. At the same time, he was set in his ways. He’s an Australian man, 59, who had never been married.
There were a lot of differences between us that I didn’t really see us in the long haul carving out a life together, which was interesting because it became even more liberating in terms of our time together. I was like, “All right, it’s not going to happen. So I am just going to be so fully in the moment.” And I got so loved up! Our chemistry in bed and the lovemaking, I’ve never experienced anything like it before! It was just orgasmic bliss.
Jodi: It sounds like an incredibly healthy, rejuvenating, life-affirming experience.
Rose: It was, wholeheartedly.
Jodi: In this eight-day first date, how early on did you figure out that he is for the now, not for the long term?
Rose: I think four days in.
Jodi: What was it that clued you into that?
Rose: We were still with my friends. We swam to a beach and I led everyone in a yoga and a meditation session. There was another couple on the boat. They’re from South Africa. They were not feeling it and he hung out with them. I was trying to get him to join us and he’s said, “Oh, no, I don’t do yoga or meditation.” One of the many things I do is be a yoga teacher and a meditation teacher. So I asked him, “You don’t want to try it? You don’t want to experience it?” And he’s said, “No, I’m pretty content,” which I totally and wholeheartedly appreciate.
At the same time, I could see in many ways why he’s still a bachelor at 59 and had never been married. He’s from the outback in Australia, just staunch his ways. In some ways he can be open and in some ways he can be very closeminded. At the same time, he’s also very content with his life in London and in France, in the South of France. I just couldn’t see myself there long-term.
At one point, we were playing with the idea of when we’re together in five years and it was like I would have needed to mold myself and carve myself into his life, That’s not where I’m at. I’m a really passion-filled person. I love orchestrating events and bringing women together. I do a lot of community building. I felt like I would be very isolated there. I’m in the process of creating all these new businesses and I’m filled with ideas. I just saw myself….I would feel crushed there.
Jodi: You came to this with an open heart and you gained real perspective during this eight-day period.
Rose: Yeah. And at the same time, I continued to have so much joy and fun. It was up into the last day…it was passion-filled kisses and there was never fighting or anything like that. It was more just an epiphany that I’m like, “This is ‘Mr. Right Now’ and I’m going to enjoy every moment of getting loved up.”
Jodi: That is such an amazing and awesome expression, loved up!
Rose: Yeah.
Jodi: What happened at the end of the eight days?
Rose: At the end of the eight days, he brought me to the airport. At that point, we were in the South of France at the little village that he lives in. We drove to Nice, which is an hour and a half away. We had a passionate kiss goodbye and said we hope to see each other again. It was really hard to leave because, as I mentioned, he filled up my love tank. I hadn’t really had any experience like that in quite a while. I had been separated from my husband, I call him my “wasband,” for almost two years. So, I hadn’t really had anything that deep or beautiful in a while. I was really sad to say goodbye to him, and at the same time, I was looking forward to going back home where I had an event that I was really looking forward to.
Jodi: Tell me about the rest of the story with Jared, please.
Rose: Jared and I continued to email and call each other. We did a lot of FaceTime. And then, as the months went on, it started to taper off. It’s funny because a lot of the trip I documented on social media. Our pictures were stunning! The first picture I took from the airport I wrote, “I’m so excited, I have no idea what’s going to happen,” and I shared the story. So all these people started following me. It’s probably one of my most popular Facebook and Instagram posts ever.
What was more interesting was what happened when I got back. I still get questions about him because it was such a love story, in terms of the pictures and just… follow your heart, follow your bliss. I share from the beginning that I had no expectations. I was just really looking forward to seeing what unfolds. There were a lot of women who’ve shared with me that because I was so open with my story, it’s given them a lot of hope. Women were telling me that they started to put on lipstick when they went out because, you never know where you’re going to meet someone!
Jodi: I love that!
Rose: You can meet someone in a grocery store. You can meet someone at a restaurant. You can meet someone in a parking lot. So just be open. One of my dearest friends is married to someone she met at a grocery store.
Jodi: You just never know when it’s going to happen.
Rose: You never know.
Jodi: How amazing that you inspired so many women to have hope that it can happen to them in the most unexpected moments in their lives! They just have to keep having an open heart and showing up. Had you ever taken such a risk like that before?
Rose: Yes. As the older I get though, I would have to say I take less risks. So it was really liberating to be able to do that again.
Jodi: Part of what you said about not having expectation is important to go back to, because so many of us start on a down path with a man and suddenly our brains layer a lot of expectation on to the moments we spend with the man. But you were able to hold yourself back and not go down that path. How did you do that?
Rose: I’ve been trying to lead, more and more, a life without expectations. I’ve been hurt in the past. So a part of my meditation and part of my way of living now is just being more in the moment, being present, and just honoring what is rather than what could be.
Jodi: What learnings did you take away that we haven’t talked about yet? What advice do you have for our listeners?
Rose: Be open and receptive. You can meet someone anywhere. First of all, self-care and self-love are the most important love you can give yourself. The more you can start off your day with just really honoring yourself and your beauty and loving yourself up, then the more people are going to see that in you because you see that in yourself. About a year ago, I also started a journal where I focus on the man I want to bring into my life and his qualities. I feel like I’m creating him in a test tube, which is actually how I created my “wasband”. It’s funny. I got so specific about what I wanted and I got exactly that. I know exactly what I want in my life. I love the word “manifesting” because it’s got the word “man” in it. I’ve been manifesting my man!
Jodi: Nice.
Rose: Yeah.
Jodi: I take it then that you recommend that our listeners start their own journals?
Rose: Oh, absolutely, yeah. Consider yourself a goddess and a queen and consider exactly how you want to be treated and honored. Treat yourself that way. Honor yourself in that way. Then the world will be much more receptive and open to finding you that man who’s going to love you up.
Jodi: That’s wonderful advice. Thank you Rose, for sharing this incredible story of your whirlwind romance and first date.
Rose: You’re welcome.
Jodi: It’s been terrific to have you on the podcast.
Rose: Thank you. And one more piece of advice is to just say “Yes” to opportunities that come your way.
Jodi: Yes!
