At the age of 36, I’ve had my fair share of experiences on the dating market in the United States. One thing I’ve learned that I didn’t necessarily know when I just started out is that you can’t force someone to have feelings for you. They either like you, or they don’t. It’s not really a fair thing in the sense that if you like someone they will like you back. The whole concept of going after someone, in fact, I think is somewhat outdated. If someone doesn’t like you and express it, then you just need to let go and move on. It’s as simple as that.
That’s why I’ve developed a rather relaxed approach to dating in the present day. Much like a game of tennis, it requires two people to keep a rally. It necessitates that the other person hits the ball back for there to be a fun exchange. Love is in fact a game and it takes mutual interest for there to be genuine romance and anything worthy of pursuing.
I don’t think I’ve ever pursued anyone forcefully or aggressively before. I’ve always been more of a passive individual, or at least not the proactive type when it comes to love. I find that developing a crush on someone can be distracting to my work, and so sometimes I would even try to actively suppress feelings that come up that may be a little too inflammatory.
The Ivory Tower 
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