100 Questions to Ask Before…What?

My soldier and I have been dating for more than two years now, with more than a year spent apart. While we did have a good chunk of time together before diving headfirst into a long distance relationship, we are constantly learning things about each other.

I am always looking for ways to make the most of the time that her and I have together, whether during a visit, on a Skype call, or via e-mail. In a sense, the long distance gives me the opportunity to be a bit more creative, finding ways to communicate that make the distance a bit easier.

So with that, I present to you creative communication example numero uno:

While perusing Pinterest one weekend afternoon, I stumbled upon this little gem:

100 Questions Couples Should Ask Before Getting Married

 Now, you may be thinking one of several things:

1. I’m already married. What on earth do I need to ask my service member that I don’t already know?

2. I’m just dating a service member. Marriage is eons away, and I don’t want to scare them off!

3. My service members doesn’t particularly enjoy doing Q and As. Does anyone?

Whether you’re married, engaged, dating, or just fawning over someone (whether or not they don camouflage), you have to check this out.

I first presented the idea to my soldier in a car ride from San Antonio to Austin– a solid hour and a half drive. I thought he would look at me like I was crazy, but he was excited about the idea, so we started going through the list, beginning with question number one:

“If we eliminated physical attraction from our relationship, what would be left?”

Sound intriguing?

It’s funny, because although he and I are madly in love and know each other inside and out, I would have never thought to ask him some of these questions.

As we went through the list, each question ended up turning into long conversations about love, the past, the future, trust, annoyances, communication, finance, and so much more. We ended the car ride halfway through the list, and for the rest of our trip, he was the one who asked if we could go through more questions—during dinner, while taking walks—we were both hooked!

This experience brought us closer together. I think it opened a lot of doors and helped us enter a new level of a relationship. We discussed just about everything you could ever want and not want!

I’ve shared this nugget with my friends—women who are dating, engaged, or married—and all had positive experiences with their significant other.