One thing I really dislike about dating in my late 30s is how much I evaluate people I’m romantically interested in. I wish I could just like someone and see where it goes, but I can’t stop myself from thinking about where we both are in life, how our lives would work together, what we’d each have to compromise on, and suddenly I’m approaching it like a business negotiation. I miss when I could just fall in love and figure out my life with someone along the way. Now I have so much more to take into account, especially if my circumstances are quite different from theirs. And of course I still want to fall in love and be spontaneous and irrational about it, but I also can’t pretend I don’t know everything I know now. I find the whole thing so practical and unromantic and I really wish it wasn’t.