You know, it's painful to see someone making the same mistakes you've made yourself.
I held a torch for someone for nearly 6 years. I did date, infrequently, during that time to "keep up appearances" but in the back of my mind I always "knew" that she would leave her boyfriend, whom she had a child with, and we would be together forever, etc. Well she finally did leave him (he was occasionally abusive) and promptly met someone else. Now on the one hand, he's the good person she deserves; but on the other, he wasn't me. Yet I still didn't get it through my thick skull. And I never told her because I was a coward and because I just knew that if I was a friend for her she would see what a great guy I was and we'd get together even though she'd told me before when we did go on a couple of dates together that she could never see me as more than a friend. Eventually they got married and seeing her walk down the aisle was what
finally snapped me out of it.
Now, can you see what is wrong with the paragraph I just wrote. It's all true but the problem is that my disfunctional attitude and approach, if one could even call it that, turned me into a deceitful, selfish liar. A miserable little emo troll who would never find someone as great as her and would be alone his whole life, oh woe is me.
But, what I needed wasn't for her to realize just how wonderful I was, because I clearly wasn't; what I needed was a good swift kick in the ass. Both literally and figuratively. Well, her wedding served that quite nicely. My deepest regret is that I didn't extract my cranium from my ass sooner because all I caused was no end of misery to myself.
Now? Well, now I'm dating again, have been for years now. And it's for real this time and I've just met a beautiful, intelligent woman and, in fact, we had sushi Saturday night and we're going to a ball game this Saturday. You know why? Because I didn't pussyfoot around. I asked her if she'd like to hang out together with our mutual friends and when that went well I asked if she'd like to have dinner. And when that went well, I asked her if she'd like to go see the ball game. Do you see a common thread in those last few sentences. I've already said it... I stopped pussyfooting around. Fortunately I stopped doing that in mid-twenties instead of waiting until I was in my early thirties but still...
How will things turn out with her? No fucking clue. She's great but that doesn't mean we're compatible. If it works out, great; if not, well, there are other women out there. I know because I've been out with them, dating or as friends and I don't have my head lodged firmly in the ass end of my digestive system anymore.
Well guess what, you're still in an annatomically impossible pose and this thread should be the good, swift kick in the ass so that You. Just. Move. On. If she's bought a house with someone she's
gone. If you were me, that would be seeing her walk down the aisle with someone else in the story I related above.
And don't you dare whine to me that I just don't understand because I fucking do understand.
All too well.
Edit: clarified a point I made.