The odds of this specific person seeing this are very slim, so I guess I'll use this opportunity to rant and let things out, heh. I went to the thrift store to see if they had any cheap fish tanks because I wanted to get back into the hobby. There happened to be a tank there for $3, cheap as fuck, so I decided to get it. I went to Pet Smart to get fish supplies afterwards because I stupidly threw everything out a few years back. Didn't know which size filter to get and the girl who worked there said it'd be ok to get a filter for a 50g tank when my tank was around 10-15g. Some other guy who works there, comes up to me and asks me some questions and I end up getting a smaller filter. Go back a few days later to buy some fish, I let him know that he was right and the other filter would have probably been too strong for the tank. Oddly enough we hit things off- I honestly had no interest in this Pet Smart guy, yet we seemed to get along pretty nicely so I told myself to get his number next time I go because why not, right? There's nothing to lose. I go a week later after they get their new shipment of plants and I find out he Reddits! Weow. So many things in common, kind of weird, but nice at the same time. After talking for awhile I suggest we go to a different fish store after he's off work (really wanted to get to know him at this point) he says yes! Good good. This will be fun. We meet after he gets off work, things go well. I think to myself "Wow, I haven't met someone that I could actually get along/connect with in such a long time." We find out that we have a rather large age gap and that was sort of caused a few problems and other minuscule things too. Other than a few things and unchangeable factors (age) we got along really well. However, they say good things are bound to come to an end. The time we spent together was nice, and I learnt quite a bit from it, but I wonder if it would have been better if we had never crossed paths. If I didn't want to get fish again, if that thrift store didn't have that damn $3 fish tank, if I had gone to Pet Smart when it was busier (would have had less time to get to know each other), maybe just maybe I'd be happier right now? Happier living in a world where we we're not aware of each others existence(as cheesy and dramatic as that sounds). Our age difference made him feel uncomfortable from the beginning and like many things that make us uncomfortable, he wasn't able to get past it. Maybe he used it as a scapegoat to ease himself out of the situation later on, but who knows. I just have this void inside me that I can't seem to fill back up, hopefully it'll disappear with time, but if not.. I'm going to wish I never went to the thrift store that day. He was a great guy, had some flaws, but so did I. It just made me realize that no matter how special something or someone may seem, in the end all those special moments turn into nothing. If work would have been just a bit busier, I wouldn't have been able to visit the thrift store, if I didn't throw out my fish tank and all those supplies I wouldn't have gone to the thrift store. So many if's.. so many ways this could have played out differently. Even in the beginning of our friendship or relationship, whatever it was, if I was just a bit older or if he was just a bit younger, everything would have? might have? been different because all our issues stemmed from our age difference (at least that what it seems like, for all I know he used it as an excuse to get in and get out). We might have come across other problems, but they would have probably been easily fixed versus an age, something that can't be fixed. There were so many ways for this to play out, but it just had to go this way..