For years you overlook people who don't fit this criteria. After all, you know what you want. Why waste your time with anything else? It's better to be alone than to be with the wrong person.

Then one day you wake up and realize that you're completely smitten with someone who doesn't even come close to any of those things. You never even saw it coming. One day you're minding your business, blissfully unaware of what's lurking around the corner, secure in your belief that one day you'll meet the person you're meant to be with, and that person will be everything you imagined. Then suddenly, there is this man. This man who doesn't have many of the qualities or traits that you previously held so dear. He has so many other qualities though. They make him just as wonderful as your imaginary man, and the fact that you can be attracted to these qualities surprises you.

He's simple. Not simple as in un-intelligent. He just leads a simple life. He goes to work everyday where he smiles and has a good time. He doesn't seem to spend time pondering the woes of the world or figuring out how to fix them. He concentrates on increasing the value of his life. And he's done a very good job. He started with very little and he's created a life for himself that is stable and constant. You admire him for that. He's a peacemaker. When tempers flare he always attempts to mediate. Not in an annoying way. Just in a way that shows he truly cares about the people around him. He hates museums. He thinks they're boring. Probably because they don't reflect his culture at all. It's difficult to have a serious conversation with him as his English is far from perfect. He's hard to understand sometimes. But he has the cutest accent. It's perfectly endearing. It makes you feel sort of gooey inside.

He wouldn't really fit in with your friends. They're all college educated, young singles who have lots of disposable income and few responsibilities. They wouldn't know what to say to him. He wouldn't know what to say to them.

Your family would pretend to like him, but then your mother would hound you on how much older he is than you. She'd lecture you on how tough life would be trying to combine cultures. How people would look at you funny and judge the type of person you are just because you're with him. Your mother means well. She really does.

Your father would hate him. But no matter. Your father hates all men you like.

All around, it's an interesting situation. What do you do? What DO you do?