Search Results: understand what happened in your life

I have had two relationships in my life upon which I periodically reflect and wonder what might have happened if I had tried harder. One relationship happened in 1980. It was a co-worker who I started dating and I really liked her, saw no warning signs or red flags, and we were very compatible, but the circumstances in my life led me to moving from Tampa back to Jacksonville. I should have tried to keep it alive over the distance but I didn't and I have heard from her in decades.

The other was an online acquaintance that could have blossomed into something more but there was a great distance between us. We talked for months and she impressed me as being a great woman and she undoubtedly would be a very loyal partner. I was willing to travel to meet her and then the pandemic hit us and there were travel bans imposed. The idea of waiting indefinitely overwhelmed me and I met someone locally who really wasn't a great match but she was here, a real flesh-and-blood woman who I could spend time with right now. And she was horribly hurt that I wasn't willing to wait for her. . . totally understandable.

The strange part is that they both have the same first name. And they had some of the same physical features.

That's my story; what's yours? [Please don't respond to tell me that no relationship is a failure if you learned lessons from the experience. I understand that but I still think of my exes as failed relationships.]