Very well-said. I understand. I agree with you and would like to add that I can't save anyone at this point in life. I'm too old for addictions, people who can't pay for their own basic needs, and people who won't take responsibility for their own actions.

RESPECT was the secret of the 55 years my late wife and I had. TRUST came in second and SHARING was a close third. If you can ever find a partner with these qualities, hang on to them. Our daughter, an only child, twice divorced, laughingly always blamed us for her failures because she always strived to have a marriage “as good as Mom and Dad’s”, which she never was able to obtain. TRUE love in both partners is priceless. Keep searching.

You are under no obligation to explain yourself to anyone.
Although, I completely appreciate your desire to be understood.

Good for you for keeping the narcissists away! It’s good to have standards and boundaries.

I would say you’re much better looking than average. But I’m so old my eyes might not be working right.

I didn't see your previous post, but your statement seems clear to me. Stick to it!

You've learned at 27 what I still hadn't learned at 57, so good on you! Stay strong, and make yourself happy. Whether you find a romantic partner or not, you'll still be just fine.

Sorry to say that modern consumer capitalist culture promotes narcissism, especially among people who are shallow enough to be taken in by it, and of course the West's failed education systems, do nothing to address shallowness. So sadly finding someone who is not a narcissist, is going to be harder for both women and men as time goes by. At least in a world where it is no longer hidden behind manners, as it once was, it is easier to spot the signs.

Keep going, you are young yet, and speaking as a (moderately) old person, you will be surprised by how much life and the world changes, over even short periods of time.

My wife and I were as poor a church mice too, when we married, and sadly she did not live to see the moderate success I later made in my business life. So speaking as one who enjoyed a very happy marriage in relative poverty, and financial security alone, I can tell you wealth as a source of happiness is vastly overrated.

Here's wishing you the best.

Take good care of yourself.

I want any rich and beautiful women out there to know I can cut them quite a generous amount of slack.

I will often judge people by the way they treat waiters, cabbies, blue collar workers.

Treating me nicely is the low bar anyone I am meeting has to at least do that. Next is treat people with gratitude and kindness is next on the bar. But I can't stay with someone just because they are nice to me. If there is no connection, or enjoyment being together, it is at least rather soon not something to continue.

On 2 occasions I left people sitting in coffee shops because they were rude to restaurant staff.

IFor me, it's good to think of qualities and ways of being I want my friends/ partner to have and then make sure I exemplify those qualities first, as we don't usually attract friends and lovers to us what we Want, but more a match to who We Are.

That sounds fair enough to me.

solidarity fist bump

My advice to you would be the same I offered my daughter, who is about your age. Never date a guy who talks about himself more than he shows an interest in you, whose eyes keep scanning the room instead of you, who appears to have a negative relationship with his mother, who looks down on anyone he views as 'beneath him' and who treats the restaurant staff like servants. Finally, speaking as a man, please know that bringing a man into your life may well add to your problems instead of fixing them! Peace.

I will never understand why people stay in unhappy let alone abusive relationships. I'm with you. I take off right away. My friends think I'm odd because, "I can't keep a guy." I think they are odd for staying with their mates that suck. I was lucky to have had parents that had great loving relationship. I know what it's supposed be like. Pleasant and fulfilling.

Self love is the key , a strong declaration stick to it !!

Good for you. I was much older before I understood that I have to have my own shit together before I worry about a relationship. And no relationship is worth sacrificing my sense of emotional or physical safety. I am single, by the way. Many of those of us who feel this way are. That is completely ok. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, who cares. Life outside a relationship can be every bit as good.

Sounds like my life when I was 28. Seriously. I'm o for 2 in the long term relationship category. I totally got what you were saying and it never entered my mine that you would be accused of only looking for rich handsome dudes. Just sayin'.
Your rule of thumb is an excellent one! Remember we all have baggage, I think the reason some/most relationships work is compromise and a willingness to grow and understand. One sided giving and understanding NEVER worked for me, it's easier to be alone with me than alone with someone else.
I think there is another signal here, when right from jump you need to start explaining (as with your previous post which caused you to post a clarifying post) what you meant.

I will take you at your word.

I will also commend to you all the comments that have so far been made in response to your post.

I will now offer my own thoughts of you as a person.

I have always found your posts to be insightful and thoughtful.

I do not care about your physical appearance - your mind is way more important. ("Do not judge a man by the colour of his skin, but by the content of his character" /pace/ Martin Luther King.)

If I lived in Wisconsin, I would suggest a meeting at a coffee house of your choosing.

Go well, and please keep looking after yourself.

Be true to yourself, you are worth it. Stay safe and I wish you well in life.

With strength and fire like that, who cares what you look like, you sound like a woman to walk through life with. But, walk your own path proudly and bugger their expectations. Now if I were only 40 years younger

Women should not have to justify themselves leaving an abusive relationship. My fear is that this economic depression that we are heading into like the ground coming at you when you forget your parachute is going to either drive women into abusive relations or prevent them from leaving. (BTW, I have a son your age and need some grandchildren, no pressure... <doting widowed father)

Poor as shit, no problem! Get a degree in something you like to do that is in a lucrative field that is immune to the economy. Average looking? Not true. Above average. Crazy cat lady? Maybe. Unless a guy is nuts about cats, maybe scale that back a bit. Just tryin' to help you in the long run.

I looked at your profile. I think you are very pretty. One day, when you are ready, a great guy will come into your life.