I think it takes an amazing amount of energy to convince oneself that the Forever Person isn't just around that next corner.  In the end I believe we never do convince ourselves.  I know I found it increasingly hard to maintain the pose of emotional self-sufficiency lying on my bed and sitting at my desk, watching the gulls cartwheeling in the clouds over bridges, cradling myself in my own arms, breathing warm chocolate-and-vodka breath on a rose I found on a street corner, trying to force it to bloom.

Time ticks by; we grow older.  Before we know it, too much time has passed and we've missed the chance to have had other people hurt us.  To a younger me this sounds like luck; to an older me this sounds like a quiet tragedy.

Douglas Coupland
Life After God: My Motel Year - 2 - Donny.