Reply #293: Of course it is. But here's the truth about relationships from an old-age perspective [View All]

[MADem]

The romance goes out the window eventually, and you're left with a partnership of shared values--if your relationship lasts. The most successful couples either accomodate one another's differences by rarely seeing each other and living largely apart to keep the relationship fresh (and usually, one partner or the other will get jilted, eventually), or they have shared lives, experiences, values and routines that bind them together over the long haul.

If the guy is like fingernails on a chalkboard now, imagine what he'll be like in a few years?

Also, if it's not good before you tie the knot, it's not going to get better afterwards. They're at their best before they make the leap (and this goes for men or women). The old saying "You don't chase a bus you've already caught" applies here.

What's hard is a change in your routine, a change, perhaps, in some friendships, a measure of uncertainty about what you'll do at the weekend, or who will be your "Plus One" at that wedding you've been invited to...but truly, there are advantages to flying solo, at least for a time. It's one thing to compromise over a choice of restaurant, but to compromise over your basic, essential worldview is probably too great a leap, especially if there are any signs of being 'overbearing' or didactic about points of view.