I’m a 52F. I was blind sided by my ex husband asking for a divorce which was finalized in 2017. But if I’m honest, I wasn’t happy. He was consistently unfaithful and I had come to believe him in thinking his infidelities were because I wasn’t a good enough wife. I know that was his controlling and narcissistic personality. I’ve gone through counseling (and am also now a counselor myself). I like the person I am now. Embracing being approached almost exclusively by men 15-20 years my junior took a minute, I’ll admit. But I like their energy, love of life and let’s be honest our sex drives tend to be on the same level. But I’ve made it clear I’m looking for something substantial. I don’t want a relationship based on casual sex. It’s why I don’t post pics and don’t send many pics when getting to know someone. I want them to know I’m a real person but want to really get to know them. The end result is typically the same. I get tired of the overly sexual conversation or constant references to our ages ( trust me fellas, I know how old I am. You don’t have to remind me every time we communicate. It screams fetish.) Or they ghost me. This last one really hurt. We talked almost every night. Then the weekend before my birthday he stopped communicating. He sent one last Happy Birthday message on my birthday and then he was gone for good. I really liked him. He was so nice, he’s financially stable (so he wasn’t asking for money. Yeah, I’ve had a couple of wannabe scammers). We both love God and we have the same values…or so he said. I admit, I started to get my hopes up for the first time in a really long time. But this was the last straw. I need to do some self reflection. Figure out my part in this. Decide if I really have the chops for age gap relationships. And love on myself. I guess I’m just looking for some encouragement. Has anyone been at this point and made it to the other side? I’m trying to stay positive but also be realistic. Sometimes those two things just don’t work together.