Zerk

19.

19 to 21, I didn't date anybody.

I'm very thankful I didn't.

Because those were very tumultuous years.

You know, people talk about, oh, your 20s are goaded.

Yes, but also your 20s are the most insane.

pendulum swinging years of your life.

And they can be very good and you have a lot of energy and they're great.

And I think that you right now maybe feel like it sucks, but I think it will be worth it.

Just hang in there.

I promise you.

But I needed to really spend two years not searching for anything.

And I still went on dates, don't get me wrong, but not

committing or opening myself up to like, hey, I'm ready for a relationship because I was not a person that I think was ready truly to have something like that.

I think that there is a very real danger of relationships consuming the entirety of who you are.

And maybe romantization has something at play with it because when you meet somebody and you're like, I'm going to build a life with this person, I'm going to be in love with this person.

You spend so much of your time like going into that standard and like, you know, hitting the quotas of like, all right, I need this many kisses.

I need this many oversized teddy bears on Valentine's day.

I need to lock in on like making sure that she gets flowers every Friday, whatever kind of stuff like that.

But yeah,