Personally, I think I'm a great guy and anyone who doesn't think so doesn't deserve me. I am fast developing some issues... with constantly being cheated on. I have no idea why this is happening to me, and I thought I might look to this forum for answers after not finding them from romantic partners, friends, family members, psychiatrists, self-help books... hell even a psychic because why the hell not, I'd tried everything else. (She started to read my palm, stopped, folded my hand shut and said one word: "verboten". Tell me what that's about.) I know full well it's possible to love without the need to be loved... but that still begs the question, why the hell can't I be loved? And why do people act like single people are somehow in the wrong for expressing a need to be loved? Companionship is a basic human need.

But, it's not just about not having found a partner. This crap bleeds over into every aspect of life. Throughout my twenties, I watched my friends pair off and pair up. I started getting invited around less and less because I guess I got to be a drag being the only still-singly guy in the room. Now I run into an old friend occasionally in the grocery store or whatever, we chat a bit, talk about getting together sometime, and they never answer or return my calls. I go out to eat alone, I go watch movies alone, I go to the park alone, I go on vacations alone. Whatever I do, I do alone.

I used to do work as a substitute teacher. When I hit 30, I started getting fewer and fewer calls, and when I asked a friend of mine who's an English teacher about it, he told me, "You're a man past a certain age who's never been married and wants to be around kids; people find that suspicious." Seriously?! Yeah, I liked being around kids. I liked seeing their faces light up when they suddenly understood a new math concept, or their sudden amazed excitement when chemistry class went from being a bunch of esoteric formulae on a dry erase board to blowing stuff up or making it snow in the classroom. Man, I can't tell you how it felt when a young man approached me a couple of years ago, introduced himself as Doctor so and so, and told me I was the reason he became interested in biology, which led to his interest in medicine.

But nevermind all that; I shouldn't be around kids because I never married. Really?

Four years ago, I was running for State Representative, and I was asked once, "How can we know where you stand on family values when you don't have a family?" Yeah, I probably should have had some kind of response planned for that, but I never even imagined myself being asked such a thing, but honestly, it rattled me, and I know it cost me more than a few votes.

Single men are expected to take fewer vacations and work more hours (it's not like they have a family to spend time with), but are paid less and promoted less often. Fortunately, this doesn't concern me anymore, as I own my own business.

If you're past your mid thirties, being divorced or widowed is understandable, but if you are still single, the first question people ask (once you assure them you are straight) is "what's wrong with you?" I have been asked this by people my age, people far older than me, and people half my age.

So do I have issues? Yeah, not just with being excluded from love, but also with feeling excluded from life because I was excluded from love.