I've been thinking a lot about how I come off to other people, particularly how that affects my love life. At this time last year I was incredibly happy. It was the calm before the whole storm that probably has left me in the worst mental state I have ever been in. During the worst of it I had about 3 or 4 close calls almost leading me to get 5150'd again. I had never felt more worthless and unwanted, and even to this day I still think about it and break down. Because I knew I needed to move on, and that "the best way to get over a guy is to get under another" I started talking to some people online again to see if I could salvage a connection with someone. Definitely was not trying to just hook up in order to forget him because I know that's not good for me and that it would probably make me feel worse. So I find this one guy, seems alright, being brave I actually message the dude first instead of waiting to see if they notice me. He messages back, it's cool, we start texting, I tell my friends and they start teasing me and calling the dude my bf which I don't like but it's whatever. I was pretty content talking to him. We meet in person and the first meeting goes pretty well. We talk about hanging out again and eventually we do. Things are a bit more awkward but neither of us mention it. I get a pretty strong gut feeling that he doesn't wanna talk anymore and found someone else, but continue talking to him until I have actual proof of my suspicions (it's not bad if he found someone else like I understand but I just wanna be told so I don't keep trying to talk to you and look like an idiot) And a few weeks later I find out he got a gf (through fb, he didn't tell me) and it didn't affect me too badly. Like I was okay with it and wasn't crying over it. It did however bring up the previous heartbreak that I went through previously and for a week or two it felt like I was going through it again. No Bueno. After I pick myself up again from that episode I decide to go online again (although it's acceptable I just don't personally talk to multiple guys at once, I find one I like and focus all my attention on them) and I find another dude. Also pretty cool, I also felt brave again and actually messaged him first. This time though I wanted to do something different. I'm aware that I have a lot of struggles, and that I definitely tend to project my insecurities, and that maybe that's what turns guys away from me. So with this guy, I wasn't gonna do that. I was gonna be the person that I am when I'm the happiest. I was gonna be more positive and not tell him stuff that's wrong with me immediately and most of all I wasn't gonna be insecure. Fake it til you make it, right? So we start talking online and after a couple of weeks we start texting. It felt like we were connecting. I also didn't really tell my friends about him until we had been talking for like 2 months. About a month in he asked if I was interested in ever meeting up, I cautiously said yes (he lives like an hour away and for all I knew he could be a catfish) and he said that we could always Skype first and stuff and I was like sure okay. So about a month and a half passes and we didn't really talk about meeting up at all but we are talking often and occasionally he would send me these cute messages like "Hey gorgeous, I just wanted to say hi and hope that your day is great, you rock!" So I'm like aw and I'm slowly starting to like this dude a lot and part of me is freaking out because no way in hell do I want to get attached and broken again. Eventually he casually mentions meeting up and seeing eachother someday , and I take a chance and ask if he wants to talk on the phone or skype sometime, he says yes and about a week later we skype. The call goes really well and we talked for a little over an hour. I feel really good about this dude. He texts me the next day saying how nice it was to actually see me and talk with me which felt good because I felt really nervous about skyping because I felt like once he saw me that he wouldn't wanna talk anymore. Obviously I kept that to myself though because I'm not trying to be insecure around him. Well the day after that he asks if I'd like to go to dinner with him. This is where my nerves really kick in. I say yes, because I want to see him. But now I'm completely being overwhelmed by my self doubt and insecurities. Like I feel like once he sees me in person that he's gonna ghost on me and never wanna see me again and that it's not gonna work out. We planned the dinner two weeks from the day he asked me. We skyped again, another great conversation. Valentines day comes (3 days before we go to dinner) and I tried to be cute and I asked him to be my valentine :p he said yes and that he wanted to bring me a Valentine's gift on Friday when he sees me and on my end I'm actually tearing up a little. I told him how much I appreciated even the thought of doing that and he told me that I was special to him and that the fact that he could make me feel special warmed his heart and I'm like fuck I like this dude and I'm gonna see him Friday and what if he never wants to see me again and I'm extremely nervous. He's extremely excited. The day comes and he drives over here after work and I get in his car and he's like, extremely handsome. Like shit. I can't stop staring. Apparently when I opened the door to get in he was opening his to get out (he wanted to be a gentleman and open my door for me I guess but I was too taken aback by this dude) But we get to the restaurant and even though I called ahead we were waiting for a table for like 20min. And this old drunk couple starts talking to us and they asked him why the hell he drove two hours to eat here and he looked at me and said that he came all the way to have dinner with me and the old people were like aww and they started asking us how we met and all this stuff but then we finally got our table. Dinner went really well, we talked and laughed and stuff and afterwards we got back in the car (he opened my door for me this time) and he gave me this gift bag and I look inside and this dude not only got me gifts for Valentine's day.. but he got my cat a gift too and I'm literally holding back tears like that's the most thoughtful thing. So we hug in the car and he takes me home and I decided to give him a little stuffed animal that I got when I was on vacation and he kept saying how sweet that was and how cute it is. He drove me home and he got out of the car to hug me goodbye and that was that. I was very happy and started to cry a little once I got inside because it seemed like it went well and I was so happy. But now I'm here. The dinner went really well, and I thanked him for everything and he said he was glad he came to see me. But I'm starting to feel bad again but this time I really can't tell if it's my gut feeling or if it's my insecurities overpowering everything but I don't know how he feels about me now after meeting me. It feels like he's texting less but I can't tell if that's an actual indicator of disinterest or if it's just me like this past week hasn't been the best for him so that could be a reason as well but I just don't know why exactly I'm feeling bad because I'm getting the gut feeling that it's not gonna work out or if it's just me ruining it for myself and it's driving me insane because I feel like if I ask him how he feels now that literally everything I'm insecure about will project itself which will turn him away but if it's my gut telling me that something is wrong and he just stops talking to me it's gonna break me and I can't handle that again. So that's where I am. I just had to get it out. Sorry if you read this whole thing and wasted your time but feel free to comment on my actions. :p