Member-only story
About Me — Erika Wenstrom
30 questions to fall in like.
At first, I didn’t want to do this.
Contrary to what my story about my menopausal symptoms might suggest, I’m a private person. An introvert. Yes, I volunteer intimate information at times — especially if I think someone could relate — but I hate feeling pressured to open up to others.
I didn’t want to tell you about my relationships, work, hobbies, favorite books, etc. mainly because I knew that this kind of personal disclosure was expected of new Medium writers. It reminded me too much of an invitation to a work party.
But then I remembered Arthur Aron’s 1997 study, the foundation for Mandy Len Catron’s 2015 New York Times: Modern Love essay, “To Fall in Love With Anyone, Do This” and many other piggy-backing articles (including this one now).
Apparently, two of the participants really did fall in love.
Similar to Proust’s famous questionnaire, Aron’s questions aim at skipping the small talk and getting right to the core of a person. That’s right down my introverted alley and maybe, just maybe, worth the emotional striptease.
I have edited Aron’s list to eliminate some redundancies in the questions and skip the ones I found too invasive. I’ve also changed “partner” to “reader.”
