Take time to find out who you are & what you are in relation to you, yourself. We lose ourself when our identity is based on who & what we are when it's only in response to someone else in our life.

I got married while in college & still living at home with my parents. I never had a chance to ever figure out who I was without it being affected by those I was living around. Yes, I was very independent & I was determined to get my accounting & computer science degree & enjoy performing my flute in chamber groups & I enjoyed backpacking & horses & my dogs.....BUT.......

All my living around connections were so dysfunctional that I didn't even notice being knee deep in the mire that they all created. It had become normal.

So when I walked out of my marriage after 33 years & moved 2100 miles away to where I didn't know anyone, I had the perfect chance to get to know me. Get involved in things I had never done before. The stress before had been so great I had no idea how much it affected my retention of information & my ability to get in wonderful discussions. One of the first awesome feelings was going to the grocery store & buying food that only I liked & filling my cupboards with things only I liked. I have learned more about me in the last 10 years. I also learned how dysfunctional I had grown living around dysfunctional people for 54 years of my life. I had a lot of learning to do & still am.

I had never lived alone in my 54 years of life but honestly I have grown to love it. You never know what you will learn about yourself until you give it a good chance & how much personal growth happens when living alone.

It's definitely important before ever getting into a relationship so that you know what compromises you are willing to make & what boundaries are important.

It the right man ever comes along I might be interested but then again, I might not & I am happy no matter what my future holds