A Valentine's Day story, with an Asian Persuasion twist.

How lucky for most or some of us that we can celebrate Valentine's Day with someone you love. My Asian persuasion happens to be the love of my life and I hope that your Asian persuasion is not some Asian or Chinese food take-outs, but someone special in your life. Your Valentine's Day shouldn't be just a once a year thing, for me it's an everyday commitment and dedication. If you don't love someone, you shouldn't be wasting your time and just going through the motions, it's not fear for either of you. Love is a full-time sacrifice through ups and downs. There are no perfect relationships, it's the same for our timeline, you don't know how long you will be here for? You need to love someone 100 percent for any relationship to be successful.

Relationships are special because you never know when it will happen and if you look or try too hard, it will not last long, and could lead to more headaches than anything else. It's obvious that relationships today are nothing like our parents or even our grandparents, whom some and or most are still together today. There are no easy way to know how relationships starts or even how long they will last for, and it's all on you to commit and build on your relationship.

In my opinion, relationships are a lot easier now than when I was growing up because of social media, accessibilities through travels and technologies, allowing people to meet each other from all corners of the world. Going back to the 80's, as a teenager, I was at a disadvantage because of my skin color and it was very hard for me to find dates. I grew up in an era where mixed race couples weren't widely acceptable yet. For example, I went to a senior prom with a white girl who had to get ready for the prom at her friend's house because her parents didn't approve our relationship. Can you imagine not being involved with one of your child's most memorable events in life? But I was a head of the game, lucky in a sense, being so resilient in life, those past prejudice times made me stronger, and appreciating my Italian family who raised and taught me about rights and wrongs of life.

As I stated earlier, relationships are special, but they are not guaranteed to last forever anymore and for me, when I got divorced in 2009, it devastated me. I never thought my marriage would end and at times, I gave up hope of finding new love in my life. That empty feeling and being not wanted anymore was tough for me to get over. Because my ex-wife left me with two young children to take care of, my feelings weren't important. I had to focused on my children and surviving as a single dad.

You never know how love comes into your life, you just have to trust that it will come. I was running a successful Cambodian restaurant on the Eastside of Providence, Rhode Island, which is located close to downtown and Brown University. Apparently, during one of my random day putting menus on cars in and around my restaurant areas, one of those cars happened to belong to my future love. It's funny how life works, "never say never". I promised myself that I would never date or want to be with another Cambodian woman again after my ex-wife. Cupid happened to struck me one day when I walked out of the restaurant kitchen and saw my future love sitting in the restaurant dining room with a group of her friends. No, not another Cambodian girl! She was definitely on my mind from that day and eventually, she came back to the restaurant to order some food to go and that's how it all started.

Fifteen years later, we are still together and our love has continued to grow and we are continuing to learn, appreciate each other, and celebrated our 15th year anniversary this past Christmas by going to an all inclusive resort in Dominican Republic. At this time of our lives, we are starting to plan for retirement and traveling more together. Surviving your timeline is so much better when you have someone you love and they love you back.