This little rant has been spinning around in my all too active head for quite some time now, and I'm not entirely sure if it bears being brought into solid form right away, but I figure, hey, I should get this off my chest. If for no other reason then to let some of this stuff out of my head. So, without further ado, here we go.

Relationships... are tricky. Now, I'm not talking about only romantic ones, although, the source of much of my angst and bitterness does indeed stem from a failed romance. I'm talking about literally ANY relationship that you form with another human being.

To put it in simple terms, any relationship is fundamentally built upon giving and taking. You give certain things to a relationship, and you take out others. For instance, in a serious romantic involvement, you tend to give all of yourself, your time, your energy, your love, your money, EVERYTHING, to another person. And, in all fairness, you sort of expect the same in return, what you take from a relationship should ideally be at LEAST equal to what you put in.

If the relationship is only friendly, then the same principle goes, you offer your friendship and company in exchange for the same from the other person.

However, things tend to get a little fucked up when one person STOPS holding up their end of the relationship. The simple solution is mathematical: If the amount of enjoyment coming out of a relationship is less then desired, attempt to rectify, and if attempts fail, terminate the relationship.

The problem here though is that little middle bit "attempt to rectify". I mean, we assume that when you entered into a given relationship, you got something in return, a good friend, a lover, whatever. I mean, why else would you be in a relationship? But what happens when that something diminishes, or vanishes completely? Of course, its only natural to want to get it back, and to a certain extent, by all means, try your damndest! If you can find something in that person that you thought was lost, then good for you.

But what do you do when you keep trying.. month after month.. being the better person, still giving all your energies to this relationship and not even getting the slightest bit of repayment for your troubles? I don't care how into this person you are, one-sided love can't spell happiness no matter how hard it tries.

If you're not getting what you want from a relationship, maybe its time to let that relationship go, significant other, friend, relative even... nobody is worth wasting yourself on. Trust me, there's plenty of other people in the world who would LOVE to be your friend or go out with you... honestly.

Now, if only I could follow my own advice, and just... walk away from that empty hole that I seem to pour my own energies into... enough is enough...

-TaS