The_Face_of_Boo wrote:
It's not listed in the poll. I don't know why some (like you and tarantella) think it's always about pressure.
I think that some people have had a lot of pressure put on them to conform and they assume that other people have had that pressure applied to them too. I've certainly had comments from "well meaning" people who want to know why I haven't found anyone yet.
It gets to me. It especially feels like pressure when I'm going through a period when I'm happy on my own and just getting on with things and not thinking about love of feeling lonely, then wham out of the blue someone has to put their nose in and apply a bit of pressure and point out that I'm not being normal and demands a reason for why I'm not being normal in their eyes. I want to shout, leave me alone! and then I wish I could find someone so that this conversation wouldn't keep happening. I long for the day when they stop asking because I've got someone to introduce them too and they can stop worrying about me.
I think that there is a problem too with some of us forcing relationships where there is no affection. I've done that in the past. I've been desperate to find someone and gone after someone who totally wasn't interested and whom I had nothing in common with because I felt like that was what I was meant to do, to be like everyone else and find a partner, mind you, it wasn't all social pressure, we all have a feeling inside us (well mostly all of us) that we want a companion and partner in life. Sometimes it's not actually our fault that there is no relationship that sparks, the other person just wasn't someone we were going to click with anyway.
When I feel down about being alone it is usually because of a mixture of things, internal and external.
Like how it unexpectedly happened to me in that 3rd job interview - this bastard.