One partner in six years, and nothing at all to compare him to

Everything I know about being tied I learned from one person over six years, and I have no way of telling which parts of it were rope and which parts were simply him. That is a strange position to be in at twenty nine, and it is the honest state of my experience.

We ended in February. It was not bad. It had been finished for about a year before either of us said so out loud, which I gather is common and which does not make it any less irritating in hindsight.

The south, six years, one partnership, no comparison of any kind. I do not know whether the things I assumed were fixed are fixed. I do not know whether the way we talked about things is how people talk about things or just how the two of us did. I have started asking people about it, in a slightly odd way, and the answers vary enough that I suspect there is no normal to find.

So I am going into this with a good deal more curiosity than confidence. I would like somebody patient with a person who has one data point and is aware of it. I am not a beginner and I am not experienced in the way that word usually means.

What I want in time is another long one. Not immediately. First I would like to find out what I actually think, with somebody who will not take offence at being compared to nobody at all.