Valentine

What men/this guy want/s,

I believe, even though I'm still just a teenager, that I have discovered some of the things men want from in a relationship with a woman.

First, and most basically, we want someone to lean on. Life's a battle,
and no battle goes on without support. When stuff gets bad, guys need someone (like a field surgeon) to tell them that things are going to be all right, that no challenge is too much for us.

Which leads to the next thing we want. Guys want someone to appreciate them. For some reason, we need tangible feedback that, yea, even though a game of foosball isn't comparable to the super bowl, we've done something worthwhile. Bowl a strike, good job. Lift something heavy, so strong! Kill a spider, my hero! It feels good to know that your daily efforts aren't for nothing.

So we want someone who understands us, whether we understand that concept or not. Breakthroughs happen when something never heard of is supported. I'm thinking maybe half of all the crazy people who turned out to be geniuses we're told otherwise by their wives. Behind every great man is a great woman and all that.

Which means that next, men want a respectable woman. Even though the cheap and risque girls of our fancy are tempting, men ultimately know in the end that all of that skin is just a facade for someone's insecurity. The term trophy wife doesn't mean a girl who makes a man's friends salivate. What men really want deep down is someone they can always brag about, always show off no matter what, someone with class. The term beauty is on the inside just doesn't quite say it. Men want a woman they can be proud of on more than just a physical level.

And that means lastly, we want loyalty. Loyalty just about sums up all the other parts of what men want, but there's just something incomplete with the whole explanation if loyalty isn't included. I'm not talking about the way a dog or some other pet is loyal. I'm talking about allegiance. Undying faithfulness, compassion, patience, understanding, and necessity for us. We need someone who will stand by us even when things get tough or we screw up pretty bad. We want someone to be right there through all that stands in our way. We want a friend.

All of these things I have found to be fundamentally universal among men. Whether some of us realize it or not, these are the most basic desires in our souls about women. And all of these wants come with the understanding that women want things too, and on that subject, I believe it is safe to say I am mostly in the dark.