What does this sound like to you?

I don't know if this will make you feel better or not, but the last guy I dated was 26 years old and he never dated anyone else before me. Basically, I was his first gf at the age of 26, and I was also the one who asked him out. 19 seems really young, hang in there! (it feels weird that I'm legitimately answering, and not trolling lol)

Hmmmm, that sounds like me about a year to 6 month ago. I have felt the same way, as all my friends were getting engaged recently, and I couldn't seem to hold on to a relationship. But even still I focused on what I wanted in life. I knew my personality, and made friends with someone here, very similar to me. You could say I stopped looking, but in reality I never did, I knew what I wanted, and what was optimal for me, but in the end, that isn't what mattered. I am up for hard things. So here I am, happy so much it surprises me every day. My un-optimal friend, who at that time, I never thought would be the kind of person I would want to be with turned out to be someone who gives me more joy than I could ever expect. To me, it comes down to knowing what you are looking for with this, and expanding your horizon. People are scary to talk to, I don't know why, Heck I work in customer service, but even still, I don't seek to initiate interactions. So to talk to someone new, ehhh, not unless I need to for some reason. But here, on MO it is a great opportunity, make friends, talk straight with people, learn. Experience will be your friend, getting it is hard but every piece helps. And don't force things, my theme today seems to be "patience, understanding, love" also trust, but that can get finicky sometimes with certain people. If you want to ask me anything feel free. I know there are a few of us here you will always find that we will try to give our best advice we can. I can not tell you how it will be for your relationship, I cannot give you a silver bullet, but perhaps there just isn't one. There is no one right or wrong way to do things, so make mistakes, people are pretty forgiving, with every mistake, a lesson learned. Learn it and move forward. It is easy to say "there is plenty of time" but when I was in my mode like that, there was not enough time. But I learned to take a step back, stop trying to force pieces together, and let them fall how they may. That was a scary step, I don't want to give up control so easily, but it allowed me to see how I had no right trying to control things in the first place. So live it however you want. It is your life, and every experience is yours. Make it one that you enjoy. Because for me now, being involved in the least optimal relationship I could have imagined, I am happy, because it showed me to never try to force things, allow them to happen, every experience I have, all the stress, pain, joy, happiness, depression, love, sadness, loneliness, everything that happens, is a part of me, and I never know how it will turn out next. This is the most exhilarating life I could want right now. It is simple, and fantastic, and mine. Errrrr, that went way longer than I had planned. hahaha all well. For those of you who stick around and read all my messages, I am sorry, I do not tend to write small things, I have too much in my head I want to share I guess. But thank you, it is like staying to watch all the credits at the end of a movie, it shows a great level of respect. And for that I have a great level of respect for you as well.