My Prior Relationships

So you’ve been in love five times. Why didn’t those work out?

The first was in college. I proposed, she accepted, and then she decided we were too young. Maybe she was right.

The second was right after I left Harvard. She broke it off, for reasons I’ve never understood.

The third fizzled out and she moved to New York.

The fourth (“M”) was in late 2001 through early 2002. We had the most amazing connection, she helped me understand many things, and she was very supportive concerning my mother’s impending death. But she was the most stubborn person that has ever lived, and would not compromise on anything. She is a brilliant person who thinks about and analyzes everything, and God help you if you don’t agree with her on everything. To give you an idea how absurd it was, the first time we cuddled, she argued about how to cuddle. She had this whole theory about it, which was intellectually interesting, but I wasn’t quite in the mood to hear it at that time. (I should have known right then that it wasn’t going to work out.) To our credit, we both tried very hard to make it work, since the connection was so strong.

The good news is that after M, if I meet a girl who is only the second most stubborn person in the world, she will seem quite flexible.

The fifth (“L”) was in 2003. We had an amazing connection and she was extremely gifted artistically. But she had no idea what she wanted to do in her life.

In general, unless someone treats me badly, I want to be friends with someone I’ve dated.