Here Are All the Weird Little Ways You Know You've Found the One

"Finding the one" — it seems the more we repeat the romanticized phrase, the less we have any idea what it means. 

Science has tried to crack the code of knowing when we've met our match. Studies have shown that everything from having similar fighting styles to accepting your partner's idiosyncrasies to knowing how your partner feels about pretty much everything are surefire signs of a lasting and passionate relationship. But while those traits are certainly instrumental in a good match, we all know that the realization that we've found a long-term love requires more of an "x" factor that that. 

So how do we really know? Mic surveyed more than 100 individuals via Tumblr and Google form about the one specific moment they knew they met their match. Here are the heartwarming, hilarious and totally uncensored responses — because "when you know, you'll know" doesn't cut it. Here's how you really know:

"When I took her to a candy store on our first date and told her I'd buy her anything she wanted, and she came back 15 minutes later with $30 worth of bulk candy."

"When it's not weird to fart when they're sitting next to you."

"We went to Shake Shack and he ordered two cheeseburgers for himself (and one for me, of course)."

"Our second date, she showed up late and was pretty hungover. She took forever to order. She wouldn't stop talking as I tried to kiss her. At the end of the night, she accidentally invited herself and her friends to my Halloween party. The entire time I couldn't stop smiling."

"He farted at his mom when she went to take a picture of us. I still have that photo, it was the first one of just us together."

"He made me feel more valued than anybody had before. He heard about some of the weird stuff about me and just said, 'OK, cool,' and that felt good."

"When he asked to read one of my 15-page academic papers, totally unrelated to his field, because he wanted to know more about the thing I love. And then he read it four times."

"When he kept saying he wouldn't give up on us because he had seen us buy furniture from IKEA in his dreams."

"Ross and I had just started dating... I had a bad day, and so I called him at like 9 p.m. I asked if he was busy and he said, 'No! What's up?' He rode his bike to a random street corner I was standing on, and I told him I needed a hug, gin and a peanut butter sandwich. So he took me to this great bar that has board games, movie theater candy and peanut butter sandwiches. We played Jenga and laughed and talked and we walked to the Metro in light rain. He kissed me, and then asked me to come back to his apartment. The next day? I knew it was something big."

"We had sex before our first dinner date, had a shower, got stoned and then had the smoothest conversation imaginable. Still together seven years later."

"We ran out of wine, the liquor store was closed and I was too young to go to a bar. So he went to a nearby bar, ordered a glass of wine and asked the bartender if he could take the rest of the bottle home."

"We went to the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree after our second date. I hoped we could kiss under the tree — it was gonna be our first kiss, so I wanted it to be special. But because it was so late, it wasn't lit. Worse even, it looked dead — it'd been up for a while. He didn't care, he burst out laughing and I did too. Our first kiss was still under the tree, but in a far better way than if it had just been lit. When I saw he was someone who could roll with the punches and have fun no matter what, I knew he was right."

"When we spent New Year's Eve with his parents, eating junk food that we had all made together. When midnight struck, I was curled up next to him on the couch, and he put his arms around me and kissed me sweetly. It was incredibly anticlimactic, and yet one of my favorite memories that we have together, and the moment I knew that we could do anything together."

"First day of high school, freshman year. They made us introduce ourselves, and my reaction in my heart was simply, 'Oh, there you are.'"

"He came to my house in the middle of the night to help me take care of my drunk friend even though he didn't know her."

"My brother came out to me a year before he told our parents. It wasn't my job to tell them, but I was stressed pretending I didn't know. My boyfriend consistently asked how my brother's love life was going and showed he cared about his happiness."

"On our first date, he asked, 'So what was your dad like?' No one asks that when they learn my dad passed. My date lost his [dad] last year. Shortcut to knowing each other's compassion."

"He cried when he learned I was being moved to Saskatchewan... and he proposed, then three months later followed me out west."

"We'd been together for six months and I was in a funk over work. He accepted my sulking for a while and then called me out on it and told me to either get a new job or quit sulking. It wasn't what I wanted to hear, but exactly what I needed."

"He 100% supported me when I had pre-cancerous HPV (and this was before we were even dating)."

"When my partner loved me unconditionally through all of figuring out my sexuality and gender, making me feel safe, never telling me I'm worthless, respected me and never let me go."

"Our first date was on Super Tuesday of '08. We talked about politics over sandwiches. Then we went to a bookstore and wandered around. So, I was sold on our first date."

"When he told me he was down to watch any of the Harry Potter movies any time, anywhere."

"We really started bonding over hating the How I Met Your Mother finale. The rest is history."

"When we both realized we were obsessive, OCD neat freaks."

"We both confused the exact same moment from Jim Carrey's The Mask with the exact same moment from Hey, Arnold! at the exact same time."

"When he called himself a feminist!"