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I too had the brilliant, Simpsons-watching, dependable, "nice guy" boyfriend in my early 20s. He was boring, pretentious at times, and a liar. I left him after four long years. Less than a year later I started graduate school, became severely depressed, and flunked out. I too have a lifetime of being told how brilliant and gifted I am behind me. Today I am an Admin Assistant, oh, and completely alone. I used to wonder where I went wrong. How could I have been reduced to this? But now, four years after the Big Crash, I am a person, not an expectation. I like myself. I work out, I run, I make jewelry, play tennis, write erotica, and now I take science classes on the side so I can go to med school. Oh yeah, I also have been in therapy. You may want to give that a try. I'm of the mindset that everyone could benefit from it.
Listen, graduate students who want to save the world are a dime a dozen, especially 25 year olds who believe their existence is the Second Coming. But a self-aware woman with a grounded sense of self and a goal based on her life experience, not her life expectation, is a little rarer. Forget about the men until you know who you are. You are in no position to judge how suitable they are to your life until you know how you fit into YOUR life.
