Hey Everyone,
I know this thread title sounds odd, but hear me out. I've been with my girlfriend for about 1.5 years. I adore her. She's incredible. She's the best girlfriend I ever have had, she absolutely loves me, hopes to marry me some day (and tells me all the time), and has all of the intangibles that you would want in a girlfriend. She's a sweet sweet girl, very smart, who I love spending time with and we just click perfectly. She's the best thing in my life at the moment, and I really do adore spending time with her. I have huge amounts of love and respect for her.
That being said, I'm thinking about breaking up with her.
We haven't had sex yet. It's been a big thing for her -- she wanted to wait a while to make sure I was the "right guy," as she's a virgin (a guy she never wants to break up with -- key word being never). Me, not being a virgin, didn't want to wait, and it caused some issues earlier on, but this girl has been so great that I couldn't let her go. Well, now she thinks I am the right guy and wants to do it. This is what sparked this problem for me.
I love this girl, a lot, but I'm 23 years old and don't think I'm ready to be tied down to one girl for the rest of my life. Also, she's not my superb idea of physical type (there's really nothing wrong with her - she's very very pretty, great body, cute face, but just not *exactly* the type of girl I've drempt of marrying one day). Perhaps it's insanely shallow of me, considering this girl's personality is essentially perfect for me, but I'm not sure I'd be totally content to stay with this one girl forever for that reason among others. Now, she's not saying "we need to get married for me to have sex with you" or anything, but knowing how I feel about her (that I wouldn't be 100% okay with spending the rest of my life with her at the moment), I'm not sure that I would feel good about myself if I did have sex with her knowing I'd probably eventually break up with her, now that we've grown so close. If it was a random hook-up or some girl who I had only been dating a little bit I wouldn't feel bad about it at all, but I really respect my girlfriend, and nowaday's she's my best friend in addition to my girlfriend (just because we click so well and spend so much time together etc.), and I wouldn't ever want to do anything to hurt her intentionally. So, that raised the issue for me of: "If I can't continue to progress this relationship past where it is now because of those worries of guilt if I were to break up with her, should I stay in this relationship at all?"
Furthermore, this whole issue brought up an even more confusing thought: A break-up at the moment would already be really really hard and bad for both of us. We adore each other. We're both so attached to each other that I'm sure it'd be a crushing blow to both of us, me included, even if for instance I decided to break up with her and not the other way around. If it's already going to be so hard to break up with her now, then it's only going to get even harder the longer we stay together and the even closer we get together. So, that made me think -- if I'm eventually going to break up with her, should I just do it now to make it easier on all of us? Additionally, if I decide to sleep with her and stay in this relationship, allowing us to grow even closer and more attached, am I essentially saying that this is the girl I want to spend the rest of my life with?
That's a scary thought for me. I'd like to test the waters a little more, and meet more girls. I've been especially tempted to do this recently as for one reason or another (I really have no idea why at all to be honest), I've been getting a lot more interest from other girls than I had in the past. I'm not trying to sound like a pimp/player/etc., I just don't think I'm ready for the marriage/house/kids deal yet, or being locked into one girl forever at this point. Therefore, because I'm growing so close to this girl, is it time for me to move on?
Any thoughts? I have no idea what to do.
- James