Hello Vibrating Obsidian: I have to admit, I'm not quite sure what to write here with regard to this. (By the way, I'll just mention my wife & I have been married for 38 years.) You mentioned your father's marriage & his father's. One thing I think is that, at least from my perspective, relationships are a lot different nowadays than they were back when I was young.

Of course, way back when I was young, we didn't have the internet, computers, smart phones & all of that stuff. You just knew the relatively few people you knew. And relationships seemed to form more-or-less naturally, on their own. I don't think that we really thought that much about the technicalities of how they formed... they just did. And, of course, there was a certain amount of social pressure exerted in an effort to keep them together... (not that it worked all that well in a lot of cases.) Nowadays, it seems as though there is a lot more mental energy expended by young people analyzing why particular relationships work or don't work. And it seems as though young people today have more difficulty establishing lasting romantic relationships. At least that's the impression I have. Perhaps it comes from reading too many posts here on PC.

My inclination is to say you just need to keep living your life... working, studying, recreating... all of the things you do day-in & day-out. Along the way you'll meet a variety of women. And occasionally, perhaps, there will be an attraction. When there is, you just have to pursue it & see where it goes, if anywhere... see if it develops into that type of "sweetheart" relationship you have in mind. But, at least from my aging perspective, I don't think you can analyze your way to success. Chances are at some point along the way you'll meet someone with whom you can at least attempt to create the kind of marriages your father & his father had. But it will either happen or it won't. There's nothing you can do to make it happen. And, in fact, it seems to me that ruminating on it is only likely to make the process more difficult & less likely to produce the desired result. At least these are my thoughts with regard to your post. I wish you well...