I've mentioned it before elsewhere on here, but I've never officially dated anyone ever, and I'm a straight male. At this point in my 24-year old life, the fact that I have no real life friends around my age to regularly talk to, combined with my dead-end jobs (that don't bring in enough income to have me move out of my parents' house and into a decent place), lack of motivation, and insanely out-of-the-ordinary interests all lead up to the conclusion that I'll probably never experience dating a woman. I've tried the popular dating apps, and they essentially make me feel like a total loser who is required to waste money on stuff that barely works. Those that look at me in public never give me a second glance, and thus I feel like a big fat loner who doesn't want to feel rejection.
I've had a few chances back in High School that could've lead to something more. Unfortunately, I only focused on the "out-of-leaguers" who were gorgeous and were nice to me, but never more than just through side talks in class. There were definitely women that I would have realistically talked to more frequently, but I regrettably put them aside in favor of the "good-looking" ones. They weren't bad looking either. Some were actually cute, but I suppose when I looked at their friend groups, I couldn't muster the courage to fit in with them. I don't really focus on who's in what friend group these days (unless they're genuinely bad people), as I'm pretty much desperate for new real life friends to talk to.
The closest I ever got with someone was with a foreign exchange student who already had a boyfriend back in her home country. Classmates kept persuading me to talk to her more, but I made up lame excuses that she's only here temporarily and that she already had a boyfriend elsewhere. The good news, however, is that we went to prom together. It was a fun time. However, shortly before that, she started dating someone else in the school, which made me want to smash my head against the wall for how stupid I was to let that happen. The main reason why she went to prom with me and not him was because that guy only wanted to be with his friends, and essentially allowed me to have the night with her. After graduation, she went back to her home country, and we never spoke again. I feel like a complete fool for letting opportunities like that get away from me so easily, and now I have to pay the price of living a boring life.
I'm also beginning to think that the few friends I still have in real life don't want to talk to me anymore. All of them were originally from High School, as I never made a single friend or met any interesting woman in my brief college tenure (which was a train wreck of a failure). Most of my co-workers since my first job, Little Caesars, are middle-aged or elderly as well. The last time I saw one of my closer friends randomly in public, it looked like they were in a rush to get away from me. In the Snapchat group chat we're in, several friends left about a month or two ago, and now I don't think we'll be getting together for a New Year's party at this rate. This all started happening after my closest friend had his girlfriend randomly break up with him last spring after six years. He wasn't quite the same after that, and I believe that was the root cause of the decline of our friend group as a whole.
Anywho, as much as I want to find someone that shares some of my big interests (such as rock music, cars, gaming, Animal Crossing, etc.), they're few and far between. I'm highly guilty of being a "lookist", as I seem to only become attracted to those whose appearances I like. This probably stems from my OCD, as one little thing that looks slightly off to some is enough to make me complain endlessly until fixed. I get it; you can't change facial features easily, and I'm not trying to shame anyone on here that has things they can't change. In fact, looking at real life photos of forum users on the internet makes me uncomfortable, regardless of how well I know them. It's just a habit I can't get rid of.
So, I'm getting by slowly. The opportunities don't come as often anymore, and all I'm doing is committing to working for money, writing things for TBT, and growing my digital media library. I don't know what else to do.
TLDR though: Long distance relationships can and do work!!
