The last thing you should do is beat youeself up about the way you reacted. Whether it was intentional or not,this was a pretty traumatic experience. If it wasn't meant to be mean, it sure was callous and hurtful.
As far as age. I go through this issue in my head all the time. Now, I'm MUCH older than you and am trying to find my place in a lifestyle that I believe I've always been meant to be a part of.
People tell me all the time that my age means next to nothing when it comes to attracting the kinds of women I'm looking to cultivate a relationship with. Based on the recent successes I've had making inroads with suitable potential partners, I'd have to say that the advice I've been receiving about age not being a big deal is correct.
I'm currently tring to juggle several prospective relationships with women aged 36, 48 and 52. If I'm not careful, I'll wind up not having time for anything else but dating and having kinky sex, lol. This is a far cry from where I was at about six months ago.
So, stop focusing on your age. From what I know of you, you're an intelligent, funny and passionate guy. Don't waste another minute on something you have no control over.
Yah, it was largely how I felt. I'm used to feeling in control of my emotions (well, as well as anyone can be in control of them, at least) and, I had absolutely no reigns on them that night. I was pissed off, confused, hurt, and even a bit scared. As a result, I acted like an overly emotional dick around my friends. To make matters worse, one one those friends is going through a MUCH rougher time than I am, and I think I managed to insult her accidently (and it really was an accident, I was teasing her a bit, and I think she just took it the wrong way)
It was weird, I literaly felt almost exactly the same way I did when I was about 15-18 or so. Confused, alone, depressed, and like a failure (I've been having difficulty making headway on my Comps and Thesis in my Masters degree lately, and have been getting a lot of flak for it from the Folks). And It just all bubbled out that night.
Luckily, it wasn't a complete reversion. At no point did I yell "No one here understands me", nor, as I said, did I sulk off to write bad poetry, or piss and moan on-line for hours.
The weird thing is, as I look back at it, I'm horrified. But I'm always somewhat amused by the entire situation. In the certain light its rather hilarious. But, then again, I usually try to deflect my own embarrassment by laughing it off (which, honestly, is a good thing. As I like to say "If you take yourself too seriously, you end up being the ONLY person to take your seriously)
I think it might have been for the best, because it shocked me into taking a look at my current life style a bit. But, damn, it was still mortifying. And it doesn't help matters that I've been a bit moody and down in the dumps for the past few months anyway.
I had the same sort of thing happen... I had a major crush on this guy (worked at my local Sunmart) and we hung out a few times. Then I didn't hear from him for awhile, then I ran into him again and found out he had a girlfriend. Then he called me a few months later, got drunk, and BAM he said he'd always had a crush on me and felt sexual tension, blah blah, and it led to some heavy petting. Then I never heard from him again, until I moved out to CA and a year later he messaged me on facebook apologizing, saying the same kind of thing this girl used on you.
So you see, it's not just girls. I'm sure it usually is, because we can be kind of nasty sometimes with the mind games. But it happens... maybe they just get scared, or maybe they just don't know how to react to certain feelings inside themselves. And of course we are going to have some major reactions, here are these people we've been kind of in love with telling us they were feeling the same, and then they want to take the feelings back? it's tough.
I wandered over here from Dating Sucks, and just want to say that things are likely to work out for someone as honest, thoughtful, and willing to learn as you seem to be.
As far as age. I go through this issue in my head all the time. Now, I'm MUCH older than you and am trying to find my place in a lifestyle that I believe I've always been meant to be a part of.
People tell me all the time that my age means next to nothing when it comes to attracting the kinds of women I'm looking to cultivate a relationship with. Based on the recent successes I've had making inroads with suitable potential partners, I'd have to say that the advice I've been receiving about age not being a big deal is correct.
I'm currently tring to juggle several prospective relationships with women aged 36, 48 and 52. If I'm not careful, I'll wind up not having time for anything else but dating and having kinky sex, lol. This is a far cry from where I was at about six months ago.
So, stop focusing on your age. From what I know of you, you're an intelligent, funny and passionate guy. Don't waste another minute on something you have no control over.