Of Beginnings and Anniversaries.

By Discretion87
Dating Profile - Photos - Blog Home

Updated 27 Dec, 12 - 8 Comments.

So, it's coming up to the first anniversary of my joining of the site, if it hasn't passed already. It's been fantastic.

Don't worry, I don't plan on leaving anytime soon; this site has done wonders for me in basically every respect. Everyone's lovely, and there's a real sense of community, the likes of which I've rarely seen anywhere else on the Internet.

Story time, then. About a year ago, I went to America. I was fairly freshly out of a relationship which, at its core, was abusive. Even now I continue to get pleading messages from the woman to whom I devoted five years of my life, begging to have me back after I left her for cheating on me. The fallout of this was that I was very self-conscious about myself, about my body. I'd spent five years convincing myself that I wasn't attractive in any way, and she'd spent five years convincing me that I'd never find anyone but her. The less said about that, the better, though.

My trip to America was life-changing. I travelled thousands of kilometers over the course of three weeks, I got thoroughly drunk on the Las Vegas strip, I walked along the Grand Canyon, I spent a day in Tijuana and I had a life-changing meeting with a young woman named Anna from Carlsbad, outside San Diego.

When I came back to Australia, I was determined to get my life back on track; to leave behind the shackles of the past, finish my university degree and move on with my life. To that end, somehow, I ended up here.

It was a very pleasant surprise that I met so many wonderful people through here, a site that I arbitrarily chose one evening. You all know who you are, even though there are some who are no longer with us here. From each person I met, whether for a coffee or a more intimate encounter, I brought back a story or two. A good place to start would be the one where I went on a 'Surprise Hike'....

...but that's probably a story for another time.