For Laura, dance had always been her passion. From the time she was a

For Laura, dance had always been her passion. From the time she was a very small girl, her parents had enrolled her in classes. She loved all forms of dance and had excelled in everything she tried. Her true love, though, was ballet. She never understood why but ballet was the one thing that had truly been able to touch her heart.

Laura was raised in a very strict home. It was frowned upon to show any sort of emotion. There were few hugs or kisses, even for the children, and tears were unacceptable. As a result, Laura had a very hard time with relationships. The few that she had experienced had ended miserably because Laura could simply not express her feelings. It didn’t mean that she’d never been in love. She most certainly had – but people grow weary of being the only one in a relationship that is honest and open and truly shares how they feel. Men apparently got tired of trying.

Then, unexpectedly, Laura’s world was shattered. An injury forced her to stop dancing and everything she had lived for until that moment was suddenly gone. All it served to do was to reinforce to her how lonely she truly was. Then, one of her friends suggested that she try online dating. “What on earth is that?” Laura had responded without much interest. Her friend explained that, with online dating, she could visit a variety of websites and create profiles that would allow her to meet some new people – even while her injury was preventing her from getting around. “I don’t know. I don’t see what I’d have in common with those people,” had been Laura’s first thought. As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she realized how rude it seemed. She had just implied to her friend, who wanted nothing more than to help, that online dating was “beneath” her.

Not surprisingly, her friend beat a path to the door as soon as possible and Laura was left alone with her thoughts. “What is the matter with me?” she wondered to no one in particular. People seemed to like her. They seemed to care about her and they clearly wanted to help. Why did she have to be so distant all the time?

Feeling bad about how she behaved, Laura pulled her laptop from the coffee table and balanced it on her lap. Maybe she needed to stop hiding behind her upbringing and to start taking some positive steps. She was finally realizing that no one was going to make her happy. She had to find happiness for herself. “I guess online dating is a place to start,” she thought, as she opened her browser. “Learning how to have a relationship is going to take time… and in my current condition, that’s about all I’ve got.”