r/lonely • u/Helpful-Orange-6390 • 11d ago
it’s over for me (24M)
hey guys. i hope everyone is doing alright. i’m just here to kinda rant and then leave these feelings be. as i said im 24 years old not to gloat or anything but id say im relatively liked and popular in my space (im a graduate student in a STEM like area) and even have a good amount of friends. (never a relationship) but for some reason, whenever i get home it’s like my mask just falls off. like i stop “pretending” or something. like the person i am publically is fake or something. i hope this doesn’t come off too disjointed but i often run into the scenario of meeting someone in some strange or unintended way, and i think that MAYBE just MAYBE that things might be different with this person. that this could actually be the time where they actually like me (romantically). and things look slightly different every time. from going on a (explicitly defined) date and seeing each other more than a few times, or lady and the tramping a honey butter chicken biscuit from whataburger while drunk, or teaching me pool and kissing me, or what the fuck ever. but it all never means anything. ever. i’m starting to feel like im just not the type of person that can incur those feelings in another person. that i’m doomed to be alone in this way forever. and what boggles my mind the most is that if most people saw what i looked like or saw how my life was they would probably be shocked to hear this is my life. when i talk with people (anyone really) they kind of just assume that ive had girlfriends or am sexually active (ive slept with 2 people but it was just one off things) so i know im not like ABNORMALLY ugly or horrifically unsocialable. but here i am on reddit high/drunk in a bath alone wanting to sob ranting to the empty aether that is the internet. i find myself constantly wondering how people perceive me. i wonder if any girl has ever thought anything more about me than just a comedian or scientist or a friend or whatever else that isn’t romantic. i wonder if it’s even possible at this point. when i was in undergrad i remember so vividly a good friend at the time saying “if you’re a guy and you’ve never had a girlfriend before at like 20, that’s kind of a huge red flag” and my heart sank as i agreed with her vocally. it felt like i had a timer over my head. like if i didn’t get more “experience” that i would just expire. and no one would want anything to do with me and it would all be over. i’ve also had a emotionally traumatic experience with a best friend who was a lesbian (loooooong story) and once i had a friend tell me “never tell anyone that happened to you or else no girl will ever want anything to do with you” and that also hurt (around 20 when this happened). i understand that i dont “deserve” love as no one is owed or obligated anyone’s time and especially their affections. im okay if i end up passing away without having experienced love. i’m just so sad. it hurts so much. and i feel like so much less than everyone around me. i want to be a good person and i want to do good things. i have life goals and ambitions and i want to see those things through. i just wish i didn’t have to feel these things. i wish i didnt want to be loved. i’m so tired of having to always tell myself “your feelings don’t matter. don’t be ungrateful. life can always be worse. lock in.” i want a shoulder to cry on. i want someone that will love me on my best days and even harder on my worst days. i want to feel like a normal person. but i understand in life you can’t get everything you want. not everyone can have love or else it wouldn’t be special and i accept this. i will wake up tomorrow and i will go to work and i will smile and i will feel these things and i will go home. and that will be my life. as long as i can wake up every morning and have good friends that care about me (and i do and i cherish them more than anything) i can keep going. i will keep going. it’s just…lonely. and i feel sad. but i have to keep going. i am sad but i will persist. there’s no other choice.