Raise your hand if your wedding was called off

Me (*raises hand confidently*).

One theory of writing blogs is that if you slowly build a comfortable relationship with your reader, they will continue to be loyal to your writings. I'm not a fan. One of my mentor/friends, Keith Ferrazzi once described the importance of immediately sharing your passion, your pains, your struggles when getting to know people in establishing personal relationships. He is the master of developing and maintaining personal relationships for life success (check out the link to his blog below ("Never Eat Alone"), and his website: www.nevereatalone.com). Buy the book and get to know his story. Trust me. I'm not a reader, but this book may be one of the most important reads one may ever have. Ask the TODAY show (http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3032633/) - they interviewed him twice on the same topic and his bestselling book.

During one of his conferences for an organization of entrepreneurs in New York, I participated in an exercise which involved getting to know a total stranger...but the catch was, we had to do it through sharing our dreams and pains. My partner was the wife of an entrepreneur who only found her true passion in life as an interior designer in her late 40's (covering both passion and pain). I told her about my dreams to start a record label and my former engagement which did not materialize into the wedding as planned. In short, we had a very deep and intimate conversation, which continued even after the conference ended. Even if she didn't break up with her husband to date me (and I don't typically go for 50-year old women), I'd say the conversation was a success.

You are my partner now. Forget the easygoing conversation/small talk that people are so used to when getting to know someone. This is me. Acid Jazz Boy. I was about to get married. It didn't happen.

My ex-fiancee needed to be free. She needed to live a life away from the pressures of a committed relationship and find herself, so she broke off the relationship sometime in October 2004...over the phone...long distance.

There are a few reasons why I'm writing this post now:

(1) When you're heartbroken, you realize that the worst part of each struggling day is waking up.
*now imagine me. jetlagged. I am awake at 3 am. I woke up at an odd hour thinking about her yet again. So I guess writing this post is somewhat pseudo-cathartic and therapeutic. I've been brokenhearted for more than a year.
(2) You may be hearing a lot about this episode of mine throughout the blog. It was a defining moment. More details (but none too incriminating on her part) will come.
(3) This is a subtle indirect introduction of Keith Ferrazzi. Buy the book "Never Eat Alone" and check out his blog. No, he's not a Dr. Phil (just because he's part of this post). He's good for you aspiring professionals/businessmen out there.

That's enough background for a 3 am (now 4 am) post. Up next: the candid feelings of a brokenhearted 27-year old international law student.

Good night (morning). I have to wake up in 5 hours to sing for a wedding (irony?).