How Discovering Lady Gaga Is Dating Her Ex-Boyfriend Inspired This Woman to Challenge Herself
Lady Gaga hasn’t been shy when it comes to flaunting her new man, Michael Polansky, and the world has taken notice — including Polansky’s ex-girlfriend.
In a new op-ed for The New York Times, Lindsay Crouse, a senior staff editor for the outlet’s Opinion vertical, opened up about the moment she discovered that the man she used to date for seven years has moved on with the Grammy Award-winning artist.
“I scrolled through Instagram and saw a post from Lady Gaga: she was sitting in her new boyfriend’s lap,” Crouse recalls, after several of her friends had texted her to check social media. “Friends from college liked it — along with nearly three million others.”
The editor writes about how natural it is for anyone to immediately wonder about their ex’s life without them, imagining how it compares to when they were together, or how they compare to the ex’s new significant other.
“If you’ve ever googled an ex’s new partner (be honest) you’ve probably played a certain game with yourself. You’re either just curious — which is healthy of you — or you want to know how you compare,” she writes. “Ideally the ex’s life didn’t improve too much without you? In this case, though, that’s all upended. How do you compare yourself with Lady Gaga?”
Finding out that she would inevitably be compared to Gaga was daunting at first, Crouse alludes, but instead, it encouraged her to step outside of her comfort zone.
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“Lady Gaga is amazing. Comparing yourself with her is incredibly motivational, and I recommend you try it, regardless of how you relate to who’s dating her. At least, that’s what I did,” she writes.
“For example: I was going to wear a black dress I’d gotten on sale years ago to an event that weekend, for probably the 27th time. But Lady Gaga would never do something like that,” Crouse continued.
Instead, she allowed herself to splurge on a new dress for the event, because “Why should I accept less than Lady Gaga?”
And she didn’t stop there, challenging herself with a new sense of confidence and self-respect in other areas of her life as well.
“I went to a coffee shop. Did I want a large? Yes. For the event: Did I want my makeup done? I never had, but yes. And yes, I’ll get the lashes too. When I was emailed praise, did I forward it to my boss? Yes. Did I agree to do the work presentation I was anxious about? Yes. Yes, yes, yes.” she writes.
Crouse’s point is that finding out Gaga, 33, was dating her ex didn’t set her back, but only encouraged her to continue working at being a better version of herself.
“The point is, Lady Gaga is living the ambitious life that we keep saying women should embrace,” the ex-girlfriend writes. “It’s so easy as you get older to find the best in who you’ve become, to make the most of it — and maybe even to get a little complacent about it. But if Lady Gaga can do what she wants, and even expand on what she wants, why not me, too? Why not let being “exactly who I am” mean trying to be the best I could be?”
Gaga and Polansky, 36, made their relationship Instagram official in early February, after rumors of the new romance began swirling in late December after they were spotted kissing at Bavette’s Steakhouse & Bar in Las Vegas.
The singer recently shared a selfie of the couple watching a sunset together, just a few days after their celebrated their first Valentine’s Day. Gaga will released her latest single, “Stupid Love,” Friday at midnight.
