It isn't very likely that a man of only 26 has had even one long-term relationship of any experiential value, much less "several," as you claim, or even any sufficient to give him insight enough to know what is or isn't a healthy relationship. It's clear that you fall within this milieu of men. You've gone ga-ga over a TWENTY year-old girl who's only just coming into her own, and highly uncertainly at that. Go for it with all the ardor you can muster. But I'm confident that when it's all said and done, each of you will have left the other with nothing but heartache, pain, sorrow and anger. I'd let this child grow up a little more before I went chasing after her. Meanwhile, I'd also be asking myself some pretty deep questions about my own maturity, and why in the world I'd pursue a romantic objective I so obviously must fail to acquire in what can only be the most painful of ways.