Tag: love

Last woman standing

On By sheeplessIn Happenings & MusingsLeave a comment

Last week I found out that my most recent ex had proposed to his current girlfriend and is now engaged. That means that, soon, all my exes will be married whilst I’m still single.

For once, I didn’t start overanalysing my situation and how my choices have led me to this point. I feel like I’m pretty damn happy with where I am right now at this point of my life so can’t complain too much.*

In the last month, I also found out that two of my girlfriends are pregnant.  Then it suddenly occurred to me while sitting on the bus this morning that perhaps I’m being a bit blasé about my future and not seriously considering whether I actually want to get married at some point and have children.

Certainly I don’t feel any regret about my previous relationships ending, especially since in most cases I was the instigator and had made the choice not to continue the relationship.  I have been very selfish up until now, putting my needs and wants above my partner’s, so my singledom is definitely the result of the choices that I have made.  Having said that though, I would really like to meet someone that I can give myself wholeheartedly to and makes me want to live our lives together, and where we can make each other happy, blah blah…all that soppy stuff.

I’m feeling as though the expectation of society is on me and, especially as I’m nearing 30, that there is a certain timeline to which I should be living my life.  For some reason, I wonder whether I should be thinking that there is something wrong with me if I’m going to be turning 30 still being single and childless, despite the fact that I haven’t actually met anyone that I want to spend the rest of my life with and I don’t even think that I want kids!!!

Ugh, I should stop trying to make myself depressed when I’m not.

* I would attribute quite a large proportion of my current happiness at the anticipation of my upcoming backpacking trip!

I’m just not that into you

On By sheeplessIn Happenings & MusingsLeave a comment

I would normally rather eat salad* than watch rom-coms such as the new movie, He’s Just Not That Into You, but considering that I’m in my late 20s and still single, I thought that it could be a semi-educational offering as well as being a mindless time waster.

In the end, it did turn out to be a fairly predictable popcorn movie with a conveniently happily-ever-after ending that was torturously unsatisfying.  It did drill into you that if he isn’t calling you, then he’s just not interested, so don’t bother deluding yourself with any fantasies of hot dates and affection.

Still, the movie didn’t answer the questions that I have about blokes:

  • Why are they so inept at communicating their feelings?  He may think that this is because he’s “complex” but really, EVERY bloody bloke is incapable of expressing their feelings.  We’re not mind readers (see this post for an earlier related rant).
  • So if a guy does call you and seems interested, how do you know if he’s actually wanting something serious as opposed to just sex?
  • Why does every bloke that I meet bring up the subject of ex-girlfriends within two dates?  Is it because he wants to show that he is capable of sustaining a relationship, or is he just really not over her?

Maybe they need to make a new movie called What Men Are Really Thinking…but I guess noone has been able to actually determine that yet.

* Those who know me know that you don’t win friends with salad…it’s an accompaniment people!

* Image courtesy of stock.xchng

On getting hitched

On By sheeplessIn Happenings & MusingsLeave a comment

As much as I like to think of myself as still a spring chicken, my parents and my worsening hangovers would argue otherwise

My parents frequently remind me that I am in my late-20s now, and should be considering getting married and having children.  It’s a moot point really, considering that I don’t even have a serious boyfriend, but they are just so excited at the prospect of having grandchildren.  They have a massive four bedroom house on a lake, and my dad just bought a rowboat and is already entertaining thoughts of taking his grandchildren fishing!  Being the eldest of the kids, I’m clearly feeling the pressure.

Quite a few of my close friends are, or have been, married.  It is a sad fact that quite a few of them have become divorce statistics.  I particularly remember one of my girlfriends, who recently separated from her husband, proclaiming to me during her engagement that her that justification for getting married at the age of 24 was because she knew that this was the guy that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with, so why wait?  The thing is that I’m sure she meant it with all her heart at the time, but how quickly things change.

So putting this together with my experience in failed relationships, it just makes me think, how do you know when you’ve met a person that you could actually grow old with?  And say that you’ve met this person – it’s obvious that you have to keep working at the relationship, but how do you know when it’s beyond repair?

Of course, these are all pretty academic questions, and not particularly relevant to my situation right now.  What really got me thinking was my mate Steve who, over lunch, posed the question to me, ‘do you want to get married?’

If you had asked me this question five years ago, I would have quickly answered with a resounding YES!, as most women probably would at the age of 23.  However, I have watched my girlfriends get married over the last few years and seen a fair few fail.  I have also observed that the ones with the highest probability of success (in my opinion!) are those of the more settled personalities – homebody types and comfort creatures.  When I compare myself to these girls, I can clearly see that I’m not like them at all.  In fact, my personality is more akin to the girls who have separated or divorced their husbands – having the burning desire to be anywhere but at home, never content and always seeking adventure, and really feeling that life needs to be actively sought out and experienced.

Then add to this my questioning of marriage as a concept.  Perhaps I’m wrong but, from my point of view, it seems to be a more of a religious thing – being joined in the eyes of God and all that – and I’m not at all religious.  When divorce just seems like such an easy option these days, what’s the point of vowing to love and cherish ‘til death do us part, when it’s really, ‘til I decide I don’t love you anymore?  And do you really need to sign a piece of paper to show this commitment to one another, let alone spend the equivalent of a house deposit on a wedding with all the trimmings?  Considering that it’s so socially acceptable these days to have a long-term committed relationship and kids without marriage, is it really necessary to go through all the legal paperwork?  And for the sake of what?  I just don’t think I see the point.

I am really in such a state of confusion over this topic, and I definitely feel more confused as I get older whilst my feelings against marriage also get stronger.  I feel like I’ve been conditioned all my life to expect marriage, and just assumed that it would happen when I met the right person and the timing was right.  Maybe I just haven’t met the right person?  Maybe I haven’t lived my life the way I’ve wanted before I wanted to have a family? I just don’t know.

Sometimes I feel like I’m a bit of a social outcast, being happily single in my late 20s, particularly when compared to my numerous married friends.  Now I’m reading that apparently ‘freemales’ now outnumber married women!  Sure, it’s absolutely wonderful to be in a loving relationship where you’re both committed to the other’s happiness, but can anyone explain to me why you’d need to take it one step further?

(I had intended on tackling the kids issue too, but this has already become quite the dissertation so will save that for another day!)

* Image courtesy of stock.xchng

Breaking up

On By sheeplessIn Happenings & MusingsLeave a comment

Having just recently been dumped, I found Sam Brett’s article about non-lame ways to end a relationship thought-provoking (and the comments too!).  I was fed the good ol’ “it’s not you, it’s me” line.  He probably thought he was doing the kind thing by sparing my feelings of inadequacy. (And does hearing that line make anyone else think of that episode of Seinfeld?)

This was my first time as a dumpee, and it really was horrific to feel like “you’ve been gutted, the knife’s been turned around a few times and your heart’s been ripped out, to never be replaced unless the dumper takes back their painful words”. And I might add that it feels like your ripped out heart has then been thrown on the floor and walked all over by the dumper.

The “it’s not you, it’s me” line is probably the least humane way of breaking up with someone, probably right up there with the “I want you…just not right now” line (sorry ‘em’!) and the “I’m not sure what I’m looking for” line.  Firstly, you have doubts about whether it’s true in the first place, and you can’t help but have suspicions that they are hiding something.  Secondly, it throws up so many unanswered questions if things were going really well and you thought that you are a perfectly suited.  Why would he say that he could see us getting married, but then turn 180 degrees a couple of months later?

Finally, it puts in your mind the idea that if it’s not you, then maybe when he finally sorts himself out then he’ll come running back and leaves you living in false hope.  And this is the least humane part of the line.  It prolongs the denial phase of grief and makes it a lot harder to reach the acceptance phase.

At least with other breakup lines, there are good ways to rationalise the end of the relationship:

“I’m seeing someone else” – this means that the dumper was cavorting around with floozies behind your back, so who wants to be with such an insensitive man-slut anyway?

“I’m just not attracted to you anymore” – hey, if you’ve put on a little bit of weight and he can’t see past that then he’s a shallow chauvinist that doesn’t deserve you.

“You’re too emotional/clingy” – there’s no winning with this one, since most men are emotionally barren.  They think that because you need to cry occasionally to express your feelings that this is a problem with you? Or because you like spending time with him alone, away from his mates, that this means you’re clingy? Give me a break. Remember, emotionally barren!

“We want different things in life/I don’t think we’re compatible” – sometimes you do get blinded by love and caught up in the whole relationship that you don’t rationally assess your future together.  He’s probably right and it’s a good thing. Go find someone who wants to share your dreams and destinations, and the journey there.

Being able to rationalise the end of the relationship is just much cleaner and better off for the dumpee.  It allows them to move on sooner because they can more easily detach themselves emotionally from that relationship.  I can’t remember how I dumped my previous boyfriends, but I hope I didn’t use the “it’s not you, it’s me” line.  I suspect I may have, being young and emotionally immature as I was.  I guess it takes being on the other side to realise how damaging it can be.

Breakups are hard enough as it is; better to make it simple and clean.  As ‘a bloke’ says in the comments, “a bit like an execution really”.