Silence Is Deafening said:
I have the exact same problem, and I sympathise 100%.
I really struggled to find interest in any of the girls I fancied. I'm 36 now and can still count the relationships I've had on one hand. Of them, the longest is a whopping six months.
A few things about me: Most girls I see on a night out have an attitude problem, or so thick in makeup they must wake up with half their face stuck to the pillow. Its just a turn off for me. Then there's the ever prevailant fact that some of the nicest girls I've met invariably have boyfriends or girlfriends.
After failing time and time again, I completely gave up in the end and just went looking for ***. I feel this was just a decade of distractionp, though. Now the mere thought of the actual pursuit of *** bores the daylights out of me. To reiterate that: *** is good. Looking for ***? Can't be arsed.
I do consider myself fairly shallow, though, and fairly ugly, so there's a recipe for celebacy right there. That said, i've known some girls to like me, and I kind of had little i terest in them, but I gave it the chance I wish so.e of my crushes had given and I did end up ditching them not ling afterwards. But these are women with far less in common with my crushes.
What's worse though, is the last lass. I liked her. We have practically everything in common (although I do not value that as important) and I straight up asked her as it was always difficult narrowing it down to just us. She essentially said no aaaand... it didn't bother me.
Thats a bit scary for me that. I'd love to have had the chance with her, but suddenly I don't care about the rejection. The women I am really attracted to are few and far between. I think I'm past caring for romance now, and not really out of choice. I know I'm past caring for ***. So the road ahead just got a hell of a lot more boring.
I have a child. The one time I didn't use contraception. But I don't regret him in the slighest. So i don't feel any great urges to go forth and multiply. And I just don't care. I know somewhere deep inside I do - bigtime - but i've listened to that optimistic dreamhatcher for way too long.
And sorry, i dont know how to quote. I have to use a phone and its awful. Having read what you said about that second girl, I think she was completely into you but maybe felt she waited too long. That said I dunno if you lived near one another. Was this physical or mostly over internet? But it proves you can find the girls you like.
I'd suggest you therefore go find more girls
I've seen the attitude thing. The cliquey, high school "mean girl"ism. Whenever I see someone doing that, right off the bat I know we won't be able to connect because they want someone who matches their beliefs that they are superior, and they want a casually superior, sarcastic, witty guy, "the funny man" and I've never been able to be that person. The popular mean girl attitude turns me off too.
The thing is, that's exactly the attitude you need if you're just looking for ***. I hear you when you say you're bored of looking for it. It's like a job, you have to play a role, you have to be in-character as something you don't even like or believe in, but this is what's in demand. You have to pretend to be this **** it YOLO 420 guy that somehow manages to be successful in spite of the fact that he doesn't care about anything, and pretend that's what you enjoy. I could see it getting tiresome fast.
That's where I think I trip up. I have stuff in common with girls sometimes, but even common interests aren't enough to make enough of an impression for "chemistry"/"the spark"/whatever, because I'm not "the cool guy", not "the funny man", I don't do smooth talk, I don't do witty banter, I don't have a snarky critical attitude, I'm not rich, not dark and brooding, haven't lived a reckless risk taking life, and not impressive enough to make up for it.
Sometimes I wonder why I even want a girlfriend, because like you said, I don't really have a need to go out and multiply either. When I see kids I'm not like "I want that", I just think they are noisy and germy and a lot of responsibilities and bills and I'd rather have a car (although I don't see pets that way, even though they also cost a lot). But it's the total experience. The *** part, and the emotional warmth. Saying sweet things to each other. Having a life partner that is a different experience than family or friends. The closeness. And I don't want to go my whole life being frozen out of this experience, or relegated to the bottom. I want to change my story and become a chooser.
The second girl though, she wasn't into me. I was just seeing what I wanted to see out of naivete and loneliness. I thought she was looking for someone to be sweet to her, but she was cold and "bad" the whole time and had no intentions of changing. Rejection is humiliating and I hate it because it means the stench of loserdom is still on me, but once I realized that she wasn't who I thought she was, and that I wouldn't even enjoy her company, it didn't matter that she turned me down because I wouldn't have been happy with her anyway. It's not a big deal cause I lost nothing that I truly wanted. The person I thought she was, never existed in the first place. I don't care about that anymore, it was a mistake from the get-go, and I wish I'd stopped caring about her sooner.
Ever since then, I've been in a weird place about this. I don't think anything will change until/unless I can somehow become impressive, which I now realize was what I should have been working on all my life instead of what I did. One girl I liked from the past and had a fair amount in common with, is single again. But I don't talk to her because I'm worried that I already ****** up my impression with her by not being "cool", witty, and impressive and I'm afraid she has me categorized as boring, awkward, needy, weak, not creating enough value, all that ********. I don't know what I could say or do that would impress her and wipe my old naive impression away. I'm also not sure she is the same person she was when we met in 2011 or 2012. She seems more jaded than she used to be. For that matter, I am too.
I've met a few other girls that, I don't know if it's really "liking" per se. They have some traits I could like, but it would also mean I'd have to give up on experiencing some things that I've really wanted to experience, and again, same problem - even if I was OK with that, it's still not a sure thing. I still don't know how I could impress them either.
Other than that, I'm in this weird in-between state of wanting to experience a romantic relationship/***/closeness before my life ends, wanting to escape being frozen out, wanting to beat this limit that's been imposed on me - and feeling burnt out on it. Like I missed my chance and now there's nowhere to go from here. I don't really enjoy looking for, or meeting new people because it's always the same - no one that really makes me feel much of anything. No one that pulls me into their story. No one that I'd feel romantic about. At this point, I just don't know.