GROUND 0101 (The Fall Issue)

A new relationship last
summer had me reflecting
on my past relationships.
What went wrong and would
I repeat these mistakes?
Was the problem lying within
myself or could I lay the
blame elsewhere? Living in
a big city I am often told of
the difficulties of pursuing a
relationship when there are
so many other temptations
available to distract you.
Work, social life, or keeping
up friendships. As if despite
your best intentions, outside
forces will eventually wear
you down.
Your adult relationships can
be negatively influenced before
you are even sexually
mature. Childhood experiences
form the basis of your
psyche and personality. For
example, witnessing troubles
in your own parent’s relationship
during childhood
can create a fear of intimacy
later in life - the reluctance
to commit in adult relationships
in an attempt to avoid
the same misery. This fear
of intimacy causes a person
to, sometimes unknowingly,
sabotage or avoid romantic
relationships due to
fear of eventual rejection.
If your romantic prospects
are not yet damaged by
your childhood, there is still
plenty of room for modern
society to interfere. Developments
in technology have
greatly changed the way
people communicate, interact
with one another and establish
relationships. Online
interaction has replaced human
interaction. Communication
through social media
and online dating has made
it much easier and quicker
to meet potential new partners,
and just as easy to discard
them. Getting to know
someone on a deeper level
can be a casualty of the desire
to quickly accumulate
other potential new partners,
forgoing quality for quantity.
Shifting attitudes towards
the importance of relationships
in society also play a
role. Women are no longer