What am I looking for? Someone who loves to dance, to laugh, to swim, who appreciates quality time, physical touch and acts of service.

What can I offer? I'm physically healthy, tall and well educated. I'm incredibly patient, grounded and do my best to be considerate of others. Definitely a little eccentric, and proud to not be "normal".

I would love to connect with new people. I would prefer to chat first, possibly followed up with a virtual meeting, before anything IRL. I work online, so I am not locked in to my location, geographically, but I also know that I am not interested in a long distance relationship.

You should be open to having kids, but willing to wait a few years before trying; not a smoker/vaper/regular drug user but also not completely opposed to the right drugs in the right place at the right time; willing to be honest, as a policy, even if it means sharing an upsetting truth; and, most importantly, single.

Bonus points if you also work remotely and are potentially interested in some travel.

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2024 was a wild ride for me, with some very significant life events, good and bad, but it's all so much less meaningful when you haven't got someone special to share the journey with.

At 34, being single and struggling to find a partner, it is starting to feel like maybe I'm the problem?

I've been essentially single since my last LTR ended in 2017. Since then I have had a series of short relationships (1-3 months). These were fun but I knew in each case that that person wasn't ticking all my boxes for a serious relationship. Sounds like a bad start, right?

My last situationship ended in mid 2023 (after being advised that if I know I don't want to be with someone, then I shouldn't be wasting my time or theirs). Well, for the past year and a half I have wasted very little of other people's time, however in some sense I feel like I've wasted over a year of my own time!

In that time I've met up with 4 people for a total of 7 dates. All of these have been through a dating app. So I can't say that the apps don't work .. but I do think that they're ineffective!

I honestly thought that my 33rd year of life would be a fun one - it's a symbolic peak year for a lot of men. I didn't expect that I would be trapped in an extended dry spell! I'm kind, healthy and relatively fit, but clearly that must not be a high enough bar to differentiate oneself on the apps.

I've tried to continually take the approach that when I make space in my life for the right person, it will be filled, and so I have continued to try to refine myself and to hold that space.

At some point, one has to take responsibility for what is/isn't going how they want in life. This year is a year for getting out of my comfort zone, making irl approaches. Last year I was waiting for it to happen for me. I guess this is the year to get after it.

Personally I don't even like the idea of one day telling my kids that their mother and I met on a dating app. Even reddit seems more romantic, since whether or not you find this post is not restricted by an algorithm, so it feels like 'fate' has a little more room to get to work.