I’ve always been fascinated with human relations -be it romantic/sexual attachments, platonic friendships, office relationships, family relations… it’s quite impressive how we humans can have so many connections with each other and how a disturbance in a particular relationship (e.g. conflict or separation) can affect an individual significantly.
So, let’s talk about relationships.
Specifically romantic relationships.
I’ve had my fair share of heartbreaks and cried over guys (!) before but really, I only have (very) few personal experiences when it comes to romance. I’ve never been asked out (romantically) nor gone on a date with a special someone. I’ve never had a fight with a lover over something principal. I’ve never had to make huge sacrifices for a guy. I’ve been young(er), stupid and I’d go as far as to say I’ve been in love, but I’ve never, ever had a serious relationship.
So, to be perfectly honest, I don’t know how it feels to have someone who is as devoted to you as you are to him/her. Or, as someone who loves less. I have no idea how it’d be to have an “other half” - I have a twinzy and he makes me very happy so I’d guess that having an other half would feel as wonderful, if not MORE. I know how it feels to have your feelings crushed into pieces but I cannot put myself in the shoes of someone who’s just broken up after years of relationship. Do you feel liberated? Or do you feel like a diluted crap being flushed down the toilet? Or does it feel the same like being in an unrequited love? I have not a slightest clue.
Yet somehow, my friends ask me, the most unqualified of all people, for relationship advice. It feels weird, giving up tips I’ve yet tried. At the same time being a neutral observer has given me some insights into the works of Eros.
Here are some advice I’ve gathered as I vicariously live a life full of romance through my friends and families:
1. Express don’t repress. Easier said than done, I know. But seriously, I think most relationship problems (not just the romantic ones, but also in general, human-relationships) stem from our tendency to just ‘guess’ rather than talk things out. Confronting discomfort is hard I know, because we get so used to that discomfort it eventually becomes comfortable. And allow me to paraphrase John Green, maybe there’s something you’re afraid to say because it’s gonna hurt and it’s gonna hurt because it matters. True, true. But precisely because it matters, you have to express it.
2. Don’t try to change a person. Another fundamental problems of humanity: expecting things not as they are. How do you expect an adult to change something that might have been developed since their childhood? Besides, I think change comes from within, if they don’t wanna change, they won’t change. So stop trying to make that happen, it’s NOT gonna happen.
3. Have some dignity. I think everyone who’s ever fall for someone knows that it’s hard to keep yourself together when you’re so head over heels with a person; I’m also not immune to this at times :p so I’m aware how love can be a personality killer. And I know with love and relationships, come sacrifices but there’s a difference between compromising and letting this other person seize total control over you.
4. Two is better than one. Although you refer to being each other’s other “half”, it’s important to still be two independent people. Sometimes “we” is cute, but at some point it gets annoying whenever one person consistently speaks on behalf of the other. Can we make “super cool individually, doubly cool together” a thing? Because it needs to be a thing.
5. Know when to call it off, and call it off. Again, it’s hard to confront discomfort. However, staying in a relationship much longer than it should have is just a recipe for a long-lasting dissatisfaction and unnecessary stress.
6. Being single is not a curse/purgatory/hell/ *insert any negative noun here*. Nothing annoys me the most than people trying to get me into relationships as if there’s something wrong with me being alone. Like, can you not be in the crusade of trying to pair everybody up? Okay, some people get uncomfortable when they’re alone and I have to admit that yes, sometimes, it’s lonely. But why are you so scared of yourself, man? You are the one person who really knows you best, let you have yourself for yourself. So, those who are so afraid to break up or those who are so desperate to partner up, lemme tell you: being single is liveable. Now a lot of people have told me that of course I like being alone because I’ve never been with anyone - well maybe, but I’ve no regrets. Being content with being alone may be an acquired taste; it’s a life skill, and a very useful one that is.
I might be wrong and those might as well be a naive observation. After all, I’m just someone who doesn’t date and prefer friendship-based relationships ;)
Life is an endless quest, without knowing what the quest is.