This is the first episode, and it is the whole origin story: how Cam and I met on a President's Day afternoon in a little salt lamp room neither of us was supposed to be in, and the month afterward that neither of us saw coming.

But we spend the first half on what happened before that, because I do not think the meeting is the interesting part. I talk about the pattern I found when I finally looked at my own dating history honestly, and what it revealed about why I kept settling. Cam talks about the year he took completely off from dating and the one question he says most men refuse to ask themselves.

Three things worth staying for:

- The exercise Cam describes for anyone with a list of what they want in a partner. It takes one minute and it is genuinely uncomfortable.

- What he texted me the morning after he said I love you, and what I did instead of what I would have done three years earlier.

- The journal exercise I found in a desk drawer months later. I had written a year of my life in past tense before it happened. Almost all of it came true, and I name the one thing that had not yet.

I also explain the difference between not settling and being delusional, because people love to confuse the two and it is not close.

For the ongoing version of these conversations, explore The Board: https://www.theboardwalks.com/the-board

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