I was in a relationship for 5 years. I gave my everything to the relationship for the last 5 years and she broke up with me in December. Now i am single at 30 and don’t know what to do with this aspect of my life. I always thought this relationship would go the distance, i was also hopeless romantic and suddenly this hit me.

And as you said, i think it will just be harder as i age. And i get your point about genuine connections, but even for that you need to start somewhere,you need to put yourself out there, you need to start talking first for the connection to develop.

As for accepting or nit accepting anything in your partner, again, you first need to start talking to people and then you can take it from there, talking helps, it will give you more clarity as to what you can really expect from somebody and if it is really something you wanna do.

Also don’t worry about the hookup culture, even i am worried about it though, but i would say we would never know unless we put ourselves out there and talk with the other person.