Emily's New Year Resolution: Quit Dating!

Online dating hasn’t been as easy as Emily had hoped, and a New Year’s resolution (coupled with a break-up and a career transition) has prompted the 30-year-old Minnesotan to declare, “I quit dating!”

The beautiful brunette with Irish-Italian heritage is still hoping and praying for Mr. Right to cross her path – and living a full, interesting life in the meantime – but for the moment, she’s not actively dating. Instead, she’s focused on forging a career she’s more passionate about and maintaining all her families ties, including being a Godmother to little Oliver, who was born on her birthday last February. (He is pictured in her profile album.)

“So far,” she says of the dating break, “it’s been fruitful.”

Emily is a green belt in karate and working toward a purple one, which is an instructor level. She enjoys horseback riding and loves music – everything from classic rock to oldies to pop and country and opera. She’s been to nine concerts in the past 12 months. “Music is important to me,” she said. And the English major remembers lyrics well. “I love words!”

On Saturdays you can find Emily tucked behind her laptop at her local Caribou Coffee, sipping a medium mint condition with dark chocolate and pounding out her novel. It chronicles four sisters who have grown apart and then find themselves reconnecting when a wedding brings them to Alaska, where they get lost and have to rely on each other for survival. It’s not finished yet, but Emily has begun looking into the best options for publishing.

She keeps busy and keeps a positive outlook on life. “Most of the time, it’s not terribly hard being single,” she said. “I have a life I am happy with and I share it with people I love. It does get hard sometimes, though, in the darker moments of life: the times when grandparents are in the hospital, family members become seriously ill, significant problems arise at work or when someone dies. You notice an absence of a partner when you experience trials alone.”

That doesn’t mean she feels anything but joy for those who are happily married. “It was never hard for me to stand up for a sister getting married or to attend a baby shower for someone I love. There can never be a place for envy when one is truly happy for someone they care about.”

Emily has a deep-seated Catholic faith, which was passed on by loving grandparents and devoted parents and has always been a central part of her. It helps her make sense of her single status.

“My faith allows me to assume that there’s a reason God wants me right here, right now,” she said. “For example, perhaps being single allows me to spend more time with my aging grandparents before they pass away or perhaps never becoming seriously involved with someone has saved me from unnecessary heartbreak. I don’t know and I can’t pretend to know. All I can do is live my life to the fullest and remain hopeful that if marriage and family life are what God wants for me, it will happen. If not, I’ll never live with any regrets.”