What the male deep-sea anglerfish taught me about dating in Seattle

After an 11-year relationship ended, I moved from the suburbs to Seattle and, once an appropriate amount of time had passed, began to integrate myself into the Seattle dating scene. As I’ve gone through this new chapter in my life, I have realized a couple of things, not only in myself, but also about what this city feels like at this time of year.

As we get closer to the holidays, I find myself wondering what or how I am going to celebrate this year’s festivities. I often ponder how I want to feel during this Christmas season. My family lives in Texas, so for me to partake in “family Christmas traditions,” I’ll need to decide some things. For starters, what family do I attach myself to during the holidays? Friends? Coworkers? What a weird thing to mull over. This feeling of needing to attach myself to other family traditions brought a lot of anxiety, which I didn’t expect.

Attaching myself like a male anglerfish

This idea of needing to attach myself to someone else’s joy made me think of the male deep-sea anglerfish’s relationship to the female deep-sea anglerfish.

The male deep-sea anglerfish is a weak little being that is born without a digestive system, so upon arrival, it hunts down the female deep-sea anglerfish. The female is massive, thick, tough, and has all of its parts, including crazy teeth, and will give you nightmares if you look it up.

Once a male finds a female, it immediately attaches itself to the female’s body, slowly fusing until the male is completely absorbed. The female fish then decides if it wants to make babies or just let the male die for nothing.

Living in the moment isn’t so bad

This made me think, ‘Oh? Am I going to die if I don’t attach myself to anyone?’ And for the past two months, I’ve slowly knocked down that feeling by simply letting myself be in every moment and feel everything good or bad.

And you know what? It’s been OK.

I didn’t realize I let myself be so absorbed in my last relationship that I needed to literally step away from the idea of the man I wanted to be. I realized I should meet myself halfway and experience who I really am now. To finally not dissociate every time I’m uncomfortable was a big step for me this year. I’ve started to really love myself, appreciate my qualities, and enjoy life through my lens. It’s been a pleasant end to the year so far.

As a person getting out of a long-term relationship, it was hard to realize initially that I don’t really want to indulge in “family traditions” this year. We never say it out loud, but families can be emotionally and sometimes physically draining — it’s exhausting. So, for this year, I am going to choose peace and spend some quality time loving, caring, and lifting myself up.