When You Start Looking for Your Perfect Greek
So you are single, and you are Greek. Lucky for you, you are not alone. While being single can definitely be great, maybe you are starting to think it might be nice to settle down a bit. Now I know many people say that you can’t look for love—and by all means I am sure this is a valid point. But let’s face it; these days we have a pretty good idea of what we want, even if we are still trying to convince ourselves of it.
Enter being Greek, no big deal. Greeks and Love? They go hand in hand, there are even three words for it in Greek. Now as Greek Americans the dating scene isn’t exactly the same as it was in our parent’s generation, and probably unrecognizable compared to our grandparents’ times. Back then it was seemingly simple, you are Greek and you find and marry a nice Greek boy or girl. Better yet it would be best if they were from the same island as your family. After all, if it weren’t for this, then we wouldn’t have the plot line from my “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”, right?
After generations of living in America, the same rules don’t necessarily apply anymore. With our parents and even grandparents being born in America, we no longer “have to marry a Greek”, but in many cases they say, “…it would be nice”. But even though we have managed to assimilate quite seamlessly into American society, we still tend to have a pretty good sense of our roots. Even our non-Greek friends ask, “So, like, do you have to marry a Greek guy/girl?” And I’m sure we’ve even caught ourselves thinking, I might not have to, but it really would be nice.
And why not? Most of the time we’re immersed in our culture from birth anyways, it would be that much easier to have someone that just gets it. And despite what we may think or say, there are a pretty good number of us around to choose from. But how exactly do you go about meeting that elusive Greek guy or girl? Well lucky for us, we’re not a different species so it might not be as hard as you think.
Greek life and culture in America pretty much revolves around two sacred institutions, the family and the Church. The Church isn’t just any church, it’s the Greek Orthodox Church, and so if you are looking for a concentration of Greek guys or girls, it is probably one of the best places to start. Besides when you meet another Greek for the first time and you’ve found out their name and where they’re from isn’t one of the first questions you ask, “What church do you go to?”
Beyond its obvious religious function The Greek Church in America has taken on the role of preserving and teaching Greek culture. We’ve learned Greek from Greek School [at Church] and we know how to do Kalamatiano and any number of other Greek folk dances from the [Church] dance group. The number of friends that we have that we know through dance, or through GOYA is pretty impressive, and with that many Greeks together, it’s inevitable that some budding relationships are bound to form.
So when the time comes to decide to start thinking about the dating game, if you are looking for the nice Greek guy or girl, they just might be right in front of you. Through our churches and families we already have a pretty good network of Greeks in front of us. Sometimes some of the things that seem like they would be the most complicated actually turn out to be much easier than we realize.
Categorized in: Greek Singles
This post was written by Greek Boston
