Niceness vs mutual interests for life partners?

A few thoughts that may or may not be useful:

I’ve never started dating anyone knowing from day one that I wanted to be with them forever. That’s just a feeling you get over time, or it just works out that way. I was in a relationship that lasted 20 years and we certainly never planned it that way. Many years and many shorter relationships later, I feel I’ve found the person I’d happily grow old(-er) with.

Second: Dating tends to change friendships. Not just with the person you’re dating, but also with other friends. And if it doesn’t work out, you might lose a friend.

And some questions you might want to ask yourself: Are you actually genuinely crazy about either one of your friends? Why do you want to date one of them? Do you really want to be with one of them, or do you think you need to be in a serious relationship, or do you not want to be alone? There’s no right or wrong answer here, but it might help you to really understand what you want.

Which leads me to the last point: why not keep the friendships you have and trust that some day someone will come along who will sweep you off your feet? You’ll then have a great romance and hopefully a great relationship, and you’ll still have your awesome friendships?

/r/AskOldPeople Thread