一位女士在一次与男友的邮轮旅行中，对两人的关系感到迷茫。在旅途中，她遇到了一对年长的夫妇，并从女士Ruth那里获得了关于“爱是一种选择”的深刻见解。Ruth分享了自己第一次婚姻失败的经历，并强调真正的爱是关怀、付出和信任。这段话语让作者对男友Tim有了新的认识，也坚定了她对这段关系的信心。最终，作者与Tim步入婚姻殿堂，并对这段旅程中遇到的善意和智慧心存感激。

🚢 作者在一次邮轮旅行中，对与男友Tim的关系产生不确定感，这次旅行被她视为检验两人关系是否长久的契机。尽管她欣赏Tim的优点，但内心深处并未完全认定他是“对的人”，这种不确定性贯穿了旅程的初期。

🛳️ 邮轮的体验并不如预期般美好，船上设施陈旧，旅途颠簸，让作者一度将其视为不好的预兆。这种糟糕的体验加剧了她对旅行和关系的疑虑，让她开始思考这是否是某种“宇宙的信号”。

🤝 在旅途中，作者与一对年长的夫妇Ruth和Paul结下友谊。Ruth，一位经历过失败婚姻的长者，向作者分享了她对爱的理解：爱是一种选择，意味着在顺境与逆境中相互关怀，将对方的幸福置于自己之上，并给予信任。Ruth的话语如醍醐灌顶，让作者重新审视了Tim在自己生命中的意义。

💖 Ruth的忠告，以及Tim在她生病时给予的细心照顾（如帮她拿呕吐桶、送来早餐），让作者意识到Tim已经将她的幸福放在首位。Ruth的“他是对的人，别让他溜走”的鼓励，坚定了她对这段感情的信心。

💍 旅程结束后，作者与Tim的关系得到了升华。Tim向她求婚，她欣然接受。在婚礼上，Tim透露他也从Paul那里得到了关于作者的相同建议。十二年后，他们育有六个孩子，并对这段旅程中遇到的贵人和智慧充满感激。

I took a cruise with my then-boyfriend, despite being unsure if he was the one.At the cruise, we met an older couple, and they shared their family stories.The older lady told me my boyfriend was "the one" for me, and I told him that when we married.

I had been dating my boyfriend Tim for about eight months when we decided to go on vacation together. We chose a cruise to the Bahamas, a place that neither of us had ever been.

I liked Tim a lot — he was sweet, funny, and reliable — but I was starting to feel unsure about the future of our relationship. I just wasn't sure if he was "the one." An international cruise felt like the perfect test for whether we could go the distance, geographically and romantically, too.

The cruise was not all it was cracked up to be

As soon as we boarded the cruise ship, we began noticing strange details. Chipping paint, broken deck chairs, torn sun umbrellas. Above deck, the ride was choppy at best, and people all around us were getting seasick. Below-deck was even worse.

It didn't take long to realize that our cruise ship wasn't the luxury liner it had been billed as. I couldn't help wondering if these bad vibes were a sign. I had been searching for answers, after all. Maybe the universe was trying to tell me something.

We began to enjoy our vacation

On our second night aboard, we were seated with another couple at dinner. Ruth and Paul were originally from the East Coast, but had retired in Florida and were regular cruise-goers. Although Ruth and Paul were well into their eighties, and Tim and I only in our 20s, we became fast friends.

Ruth and Paul were easygoing and funny. We stayed up past midnight playing shuffleboard, drinking daiquiris, and talking about our lives back at home. They spoke fondly about their children and grandchildren, even showing us pictures and telling us silly anecdotes about each family member. Tim and I talked about our own respective families and shared our hopeful plans for the future.

Unfortunately, my seasickness was getting worse by the day. Having used up the small stash of Dramamine I brought, I was nauseous all the time and seemingly out of remedies. One night, while sitting in the audience of an on-board jazz performance, my luck ran out. I whispered to Tim that I was going to be sick, then stood up to make my way back to the room. Tim followed behind me, grabbing the large tip jar off the stage just in time. I threw up into it as the entire audience looked on in horror. Tim held my hair back until I was finished.

My new friend delivered a piece of advice that changed my life forever

I spent the next morning recovering in bed. Tim brought me pancakes and tea from the breakfast buffet. I took small bites and managed to keep them down. By lunchtime, I was finally feeling well enough to rejoin the crowd. Ruth and Paul were incredibly sympathetic. We decided to hit the deck chairs together and relax until dinner.

Ruth took the chair next to mine. We spent the next hour talking just the two of us. That's when I learned that Ruth had been married once before Paul. She explained that her first marriage was short-lived — that it hadn't been right from the start. When I asked her why, her answer surprised me.

"I didn't really know what love was," she confessed. I glanced over at Tim, who was deeply engrossed in conversation with Paul. Ruth caught me staring and nodded wisely.

"Love is a choice," she said. "It's caring for someone in good times and in bad times. It's putting someone else's happiness before your own, and trusting them to do the same for you."

I thought of Tim holding my hair back, bringing me breakfast, and the countless other times he had taken care of me in our relationship. It was as if Ruth could read my mind.

"He's the one for you," she whispered, winking in Tim's direction. "Don't let him get away."

I left the cruise with the relationship clarity I had been seeking

The cruise ended a few days later, and the four of us went our separate ways. During the flight home, I reflected on our trip and the advice Ruth had given me. I couldn't believe how simple her words were, and yet, they were so impactful.

Three months later, Tim proposed.

I said yes.

On the morning of our wedding, I wrote Tim a card. In it, I shared the story of Ruth's advice and how meaningful it had been. Later that day, after we had exchanged our vows, he confessed that Paul had given him the same advice about me.

Twelve years and six kids later, we are forever grateful for strangers who became friends, and for words of wisdom that changed our lives forever.