>>1
Well, I'm about to turn 23, and your story sort of echoes mine. High standards for others and for myself, realized some time ago how isolated that made me. Then, I came to accept that fact. I didn't want to really lower my standards (even if I don't agree with all of what you list as turn-offs), and chose to hang on what I had.

That went for some years. Then I met a girl who was all I'd ask for, fatally fell in love with her; she ultimately went for a friend of mine, a cool guy, but who isn't like me at all in the end. I realized that the kind of girls I'm searching for probably won't want the kind of guy I am, in the end. I got broken and depressed for a few weeks.

Only now am I slowly recovering, and the only thing I can think of is how this 'adventure' only validated what I thought before. Some people are made to be alone and lonely. People will accept you, will praise you, will like you, but in the end, you'll be all alone. That doesn't mean you'll be sad, maybe just a bit bitter but then again not that much.

A female friend of mine once told me while I was expressing some "strong" emotions (although it probably wasn't the third of what I was actually thinking) that she was surprised to see me in such a state; that she (and probably everyone else, given some people told me almost the same thing through different words) considered me, in her own words, as an old sage on the top of a mountain.

The more I think about it... the more I think she might be right.

When I'm old, I'll surely be on top of a mountain, with a looooong beard, meditating and providing wisdom to the few people who'll happen to pass by.

I'm not sure this is a good thing, but whatever.