I Turn Dates into Serious Relationships

I'm an expert at turning dates into long-term relationships – by the ripe old age of 21. I've dated three total people (two boys and one man), all of whom have become serious boyfriends. Call it my irresistible, magnetic personality or just a talent for being a wheedler. Twice I've been the cheater and twice I've been the dumpee.

Hopefully things will work out differently in both arenas this time around. What's that old cliché about the third time being the charm?

Currently I'm extremely happy in my relationship and feel that my live-in boyfriend and I have enormous openness in our communication (a peeve of mine in both of my former serious relationships).

I Wish I Were an English Major

I'm a deranged anti-programmer who is *this close --> <--* to graduating with a computer science degree even though I'm better at being the Friendly Office Proofreader. My primary mission once out of college will be to convince a newspaper or a magazine that my university printed the wrong info on that slip of paper and that English was my honest-to-goodness major.

What It Means To Need and Not Feel Needed

I know all about what it means to need and not feel needed. My clinical depression resulted in devastation for me when it came to my first two trips to the Realm of the Dumped, so my focus in my current relationship is to be true to ME. I possess far too much dog-like loyalty to not offer every ounce of myself to my relationship, however.

Give Yourself Entirely

I guess my philosophy on committed relationships would be to give yourself entirely – and then have some left over for you. Always think for yourself – don't make decisions based on tradition and propriety rather than logic and truth. Reason through everything but have a heart. Seems pretty tough, doesn't it? That's why it's called "philosophy".

Don't Be Conventional

I have little regard for conventional etiquette. I don't believe that anyone should be faulted for his or her true beliefs and opinions, so long as he or she has come to such conclusions using reason and common sense. However taboo or offensive those beliefs may seem to some (or many!), active opinion-forming is always far better than surviving on spoon-fed information.

Lack of reasoning is the ultimate stagnancy of the human mind, and I feel that most people are too concerned with being inoffensive and "PC" to ultimately think and decide matters by themselves.

– Lani

Age 21, Pennsylvania, USA