A little history:
When I was in college, I didn't have all that much interest in dating or relationships. I had (and still have) a large number of close female friends who provided me with the right amount of emotional support and girlfriend activities (going for food/coffee, cooking together, watching TV, daily text conversations) to satisfy me. Physical aspects of dating were often taken care of at parties with strangers.
Well, now that I've graduated and moved into the realm of adult life (closer to my 24th birthday than my 23rd), my attitude towards dating has changed. I'm starting to look for an exclusive girlfriend. I've been on many dates in the last year or so with a wide variety of fantastic, beautiful and intelligent girls. Ambitious professionals, starving artists, a farmer's daughter, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Atheists, Democrats, Republicans, Americans, Europeans, Asians....you get the picture.
Despite this, I've never been "seeing" a girl for more than a few weeks. There's always something stopping me from changing that Facebook status and introducing her to my friends. Most of the time it's intangible, even undefinable. Literally my answer when the "let's just be friends" conversation comes up is "I'm just not feeling that romantic connection". I liken it to the romantic trials of the cast of Seinfeld, who always found some silly reason to break up with a girl/guy and remain single and alone.
I tried defining my "perfect girl" on paper, thinking having clearly defined idea of what I'm looking for would help me get over this commitment hump. I realized I was in trouble when this spring I met a girl who ticked all the correct boxes (advanced degree, health conscious, interesting job, enjoys travel, strong family ties, well grounded, intelligent, philanthropic. Blue-eyed brunette to boot) and I simply did not feel any passion. We stopped seeing each other after 3 weeks.
For those of you in exclusive relationships...am I missing something here, emotionally? Or simply expecting too much? Are the close friendships I've developed with girls clouding my judgement of what the proper "romantic" emotion should be? Am I trying too hard?
I'm thinking I'm going to keep plugging on with my current path and just enjoy getting to know all these great girls, but I'm starting to draw unfounded but understandable suspicions from close friends and family about my sexuality, or my quality of character because of my inability to go steady with a girl for longer than a month. (For the record, I've only gotten physically intimate with a few of the girls, the majority of the time we don't move past the first kiss before going our separate ways. In fact, it's usually during the kiss when I realize there's no romantic connection).
Sorry for the wall of text. Thanks in advance for any advice!
