Would you to content to be single forever?

Yeah, I could be single forever and be ok with it. It tends to be my norm anyway. What I wouldn't be ok with is not having anyone to love; I do need people to care about. With a strong network of family friends I'd do very well even if I didn't have a special partner.

On the whole, being single doesn't really impact my life in a negative way and I quite enjoy it. That doesn't mean I don't get periodic pangs where I'll think about how nice it might be to have deeper companionship, but I know I'm just idealizing it. Maybe when I'm 65 I'll go "oh shit, I messed up", but I think some people handle solitude better than others and I happen to be one of them. I'm a cuddly person but can live without it.

I'm incredibly attached to my independence and the idea of losing that autonomy sorta freaks me out. I am very capable of loving someone, but for them to be a viable choice I have to either love them more than my "freedom" or they have to somehow not threaten it. They'd have to be very openminded and independent themselves. Also, despite me really loving kids and getting along with them, this is one of the reasons I don't want them. I'm currently unwilling to make that sacrifice and take on that responsibility.

This is more of an INFJ problem, but I already sorta feel married--to my ideas/ideals. A relationship isn't my primary goal. I'm 100% dedicated to trying to figure stuff out and test my personal theories, and it's something I just can't stop or change about myself. Any partner I have, even if I get married, is not going to be my #1 priority in life (but I'll still genuinely love them). They'd have to be equally passionate about something because I don't know how to compromise that part of me at all.

What are you thoughts on romance, monogamy, etc?

Eh, this might also be an INFJ problem, but I'm not a "soft" romantic, I'm a "hard" romantic. Like most of my life, I align myself with certain ideals/ principles, or even archetypes and my brand of romance is less the fairytale variety of softness and candlelight and more Old School, "if Hades takes you to the underworld I will march down there and take you back. Fuck that guy. In fact, fuck all the gods." Despite my kind and carefree surface, my real nature is less soft and dreamy, but more pin-point focus and intense. That's not to say I don't like romance and its trappings, but when I really love someone there's nothing casual about me or what I would do for them. That takes a lot of energy and dedication, so I'm pretty selective about my choices. I'd rather have a lot of close friends who I think are attractive than exes who I regret getting involved with.

/r/entp Thread