"Don't you want a girlfriend?"

This question was asked to me tonight during a conversation I had with a previous friend recently (reference previous blog post). I decided to make a separate post for this, since this questions spurred on a whole bunch of thoughts at once.

I was surprised that right away I didn't go "yeah of course!" right away. My answer was more like "well it would be nice, though I guess I'm getting use to being on my own, I am dating though, but I'm fairly okay with the way things are now". I suppose that's a good sign. Must mean I'm content being single.

His response after though did strike a bit of an alert in me, which was "if you want one, better get on that" as if time is running out. I suppose the original question was posed in a way, as if it's as easy as going to the store and picking one up. It's really not that simple, and I'm not looking for some short term, just for fun relationship. I was in a relationship that I knew wasn't right for me for so long, I don't really want to waste my time in the same situation. While my dating life has been filled with girls that have turned me down, I have also turned down a few girls as well. If I were to just stay with them because they were available and willing, where would that really get me? Probably right back here in a short amount of time.

Now while I don't think I'm running out of time per se, I understand what he means. It's not like the dating pool is growing, (with divorce on the increase, perhaps that's not entirely true), but I don't want to feel like I'm in a hurry to find somebody. I've already done that once, and I ended up with a crazy one. But at the same time, I don't want to end up like the guy at the end of musical chairs, when the music stops, I don't have a seat. I'm pretty sure I'm too young to approach this as some sort of rush to walk a girl down to the altar, but with my peers getting married and having kids, it's difficult to not have the feeling of being left behind.

So I guess my answer is I do want one, but the right one. I suppose the problem is, you can't get to the right one, without going through a bunch of wrong ones.

:S FML (yeah, I hate the acronym, but I find it's fitting)