Teodoro's Love Advice at Diana's Request...

For finding lasting love it matters less where you come from as much as it matters where you are going.

Despite the fact that most marriages are either miserable or end in divorce, that won't stop you from trying or wanting to try.

The maturity and self-knowledge that allows you to know, at least in a general sense, where you want to go and what you want to do in your life needs to be achieved before you are realistically able to create a functional relationship with another person of the same level of maturity and self-knowledge (unless of course they are willing to give up their own dreams and plans in order to stay with you). (So I am talking about building a relationship with equality, not the old-fashioned kind where one person stays home, does the work, and invariably gets frustrated with this kind of desperate life.)

But you not only need the maturity and self-knowledge, you need a deeply shared interest in something. Good examples are couples who are both politicians, both professors, or both working in medical care. Those create opportunities for making things work: employment can usually be found close to each other and there is always something to talk about. Beyond those interests there are usually other common interests that are less difficult to find (you both like chocolate ice cream, hiking, dancing, watching movies, pizza, etc.). Additionally, the deeply shared interest will probably also mean that there are shared values (another crucial thing).

For those of us who are so professionally, or personally, driven that we must live in a remote place or move from job to job, post to post, across the globe, then no matter how wonderful we may be we will probably be limited to short- or medium-term love affairs that leave us alone in the end. Of course some of us can be completely happy and strong living the solo life....