Sail Away

At 20 years old I've had my fair share of relationships and romantic encounters...

I've said I love you and meant it, I've said I hate you and meant it... I've been built up as high as you can get, and I've been destroyed to the lowest low.

Love has always been something I have aimed for, it has a timeless quality that is impossible to deny. It seems to have endured the tests of time, change and cynicism. I used to consider myself a hopeless romantic, that one day I'd find the love of my life, my soul mate, and everything would fall into place like some silly chick flick from the late 90's (For those of you who don't understand my reference to that date, it's the time of the Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks classic movies such as Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail).

And yet each time I found someone I thought worthy, my hopes were crushed... and my movie ending never came (I guess it's still early right? I am only 20)... I gave up searching for love, filled my time with pointless one nighters and brief flings that just kept hollowing me out, a wave crashing against the soft base of a cliff. I became one of the people I had earlier pitied, those people who look at love and romance, and see no hope, no joy, no future.

Romance is not dead! I'd tell myself. It cant be. But in a world of 40+ hours of work, where the most common form of communication comes from SMS, IM and Email... You have to question whether there is still the hope of seeing romance survive our technological lifestyle.

I guess what I mean is: I never thought it possible to find someone who fulfills you online... websites like perfectmatch.com, matchmaker.com (nzdating.com for New Zealand)... And yet the statistics say otherwise. In a recent poll of 10,000 newlyweds, 0ver 19% met online, which was more than any other group (Through friends, at work etc). And is on the rise, compared the same poll done a couple of years ago with only 14% meeting online. Sites such as perfectmatch.com and eharmony.com (which is a cost-based site) have noted an increase in members over the past 18months, despite the recession. It seems with our busy work schedules, and online living, we only have time to search for our 'other-half' through that same online medium.

I finally signed myself up to the world of online dating towards the end of last year, and it proved unfruitful... it's purpose seemed only to serve my sometimes overly lascivious desires... And even then, they were half-hearted attempts.
I don't have much more to say, so I'm going to seal the bag here. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it. (I also hope you don't mind use of italic, underline, bold and color in my writing... I just feel that reading should be a visual experience too).

Kindest regards,

Lukas x