That sounds nice overall. I think, in some cases, being a late bloomer at this may be a good thing. You may get to skip immature and inappropriate behavior from people who don’t know any better since they’re barely more mature than children. On the other half, dating in your teenage years can be intense and exciting, even when it looks corny and immature from an adult perspective. And that early experience can be valuable for not making “beginner mistakes” later. But I guess since it’s your first time now, it is intense and exciting nonetheless?

Anyways, I’m 29m now, and had my first relationship at age 15. She was in my class. The tension and butterflies were insane, a lot of passion in a way, even though we were just texting at first. When we took it to real life, it was a beautiful thing for a while. I eventually messed it up and my world shattered. But life went on and so many more wonderful, crazy and sad stories followed.

I have had 7 relationships total as of today, all committed and rather long. Almost married the last one. I think I learned so much about what makes and breaks a relarionship and about human beings in general and I feel confident I’ll know what I want and what to do in the future. On the other hand, I wish I could have romantic emotions as pure and intense as back in the days. A part of it is just the novelty and not yet having been scarred by life, I guess. But then again, thats just the “honeymoon part”. Real love comes after that and goes much deeper.

Seems to be fake

It’s a failure basically.

Well you didn’t give much info about what supposedly went wrong. What do you suspect? Maybe you should share or paraphrase what your last texts were, if you think that was where you messed up. Or anything else you think made her withdraw. Then people can actually give you advice based on that, because whether you still have a chance depends on what went wrong. You need to analyze.

aaah yes

Put a fresh date (e.g. Mazafati or Mejool) onto a fork. Add a piece of dark chocolate. Dip it into Tahini (Sesame paste). It’s soo tasty and rather healthy!

We need more people with your kind of diligence.

Haha, once you get used to it, it’s a piece of cake. How often do you play? Mybe don’t start with the folks playing super fast.

I’m interested in why you thought it’s not a big deal earlier, or at least didn’t full on face this realization?

Well said. Yes, I do feel the same way.

So, why not just step away? It depends on your attitude and your aspirations, I guess. If it’s solely for your own peace of mind and if you can actually detach yourself emotionally from knowing about the evils going on around you, then yes, i’d say stepping away is a great idea. I won’t judge some level of blissful ignorance.

For me personally, I kind of can’t convince myself that things are fine or not my business. They are not fine and they do affect me, and I know it. So I choose to fight it, and I find peace in knowing I do my best, and that I’m just getting started. No shortage of big ideas. Also, it’s a great feeling that I actually do something that matters. Even if I don’t succeed in the end, I didn’t just play along with this shitshow. Also, I now have a few people I got close to that are on a similar mission, and not being alone in all this feels great.

At the same time, I did kind of step away, at least partially. I quit certain platforms and cut off some kinds of contents, and carefully balance screentime. Sometimes you just need a break and protect your sanity.

About the issues themselves, in short: I think what’s needed are more coordinated efforts, with an agreed and sound strategy. We need better systems for collaboration. People need to come together and design resilient ways of organizing what they do. We do have a lot of power to bring about change, but we must join forces more, and we must dare to think outside of the estabished approches.

I’ll be to FOSDEM in Brussels in two weeks. Really looking forward to connecting with like-minded people!