He was a genius but had very low emotional maturity and wouldn't bother to correct anyone if they misunderstood him, preferring to drop them as a friend entirely and focus on his work or hobby. I was left trying to make excuses for him or to apologize for him to any of his or our mutual friends. He would randomly become fascinated with some task or ability and practice it obsessively until he could do it, and during those phases he would try to drag me into them. The most successful venture was fire dancing, but he also taught himself several instruments, parkour, skydiving, etc. They were neat things I would have liked to possibly try, but he took them so fast and was so obsessive with them I would be really put off by it.
We were together for 5 years and he proposed after 3, but when I started asking about when we should get married in year 4, he said it made him uncomfortable to talk about it. Like... you are the one who proposed! :/
The last straw for me was when we went off to different cities for our jobs and he insisted that, for us to stay together, since I wanted to stay near my family rather than move halfway across the USA, I had to fly monthly out to visit him. On my own dime. At that point, I knew it was over and it just wasn't worth the hassle. I loved him and I legitimately wanted what was best for him and I know he will be successful in the future with how intelligent he was, but I felt like I was his mom rather than girlfriend and knew the relationship wasn't good or healthy for either of us. He needed to grow and I would be there for him if he needed me, but the romance was gone.
I ended things gently under the reasoning that we would be moving apart and it would be too difficult with the distance, and he agreed it was for the best and that we would definitely remain friends because we were so important to one another..... then the next week he started going around telling our mutual friends that I had cheated on him and was a sucky artist (which was my biggest passion) and had always held him back. So... yeah. that cemented my opinion on his maturity HA.
Last I heard from him was the month before my wedding, he said he had heard I was getting married and he wished me luck. Things had been pretty crappy in his life but he is a circus performer in Chicago now. Can't say I am surprised. I tried to start up a conversation to see how his family was but he never replied.
tl;dr: Ex was smart but emotionally immature, now I can say that I dated a circus performer.