I'm a 27 yr old guy, apparently single (not by choice, mind) and normally not someone who makes posts on any online forum. I'm more of a lurker type. Lately though, especially since my wife made the decision to leave, I've been flailing about in the dark for some time trying to find my way...so here's my story, maybe you guys can make sense of it/offer advice or whatever.
I got together with my soon-to-be ex when I was 13. It was Romeo and Juliet, running from the cops, all kinds of fun. We ran away together twice. I always had yearnings for being with more than one person, which at the time manifested itself as "I want two chicks at the same time, that's what I'd do if I had a million bucks, yup." When we finally got married, we became swingers for a long period of time, but every time I'd suggest an outing, she would get mad, or if we got together with someone, I could sense resentment afterward, sometimes expressed, sometimes not.
We've had several breakups/getting back together type things in the last year or so. The first one where I could tell she was serious, I made an error in promising that I'd never attempt to be with, have sex with, or even look at another chick, if that's what it took to make her happy. I failed, as you can imagine, as shortly afterward I discovered the polyamorous lifestyle through xeromag's site, and began to understand some of the feelings I'd had over the years and why swinging never seemed to be enough or fufilling. I should mention here that we did have one thing where we were attempting to have a triad relationship with our neighbor at one time, before we even knew what poly was. It fell through, and my wife said "Never again.". Anyway, I brought this lifestyle up to her, with the additional thought that it would afford her an opportunity to be with the man who she was going to likely be with as soon as she left me, if she had. She obviously had feelings for him, so she read some of the things on different sites about how to conduct such a relationship, and eventually agreed, with the mention that she would try it, but she had a feeling that things would turn out badly.
She got with her bf, I tried with several different relationships which came and went, and around christmas of last year, her bf broke up with her, claiming issues relating to not getting enough time with her/wanting to be monogamous with her anyway. She's essentially a monogamous person as well, this was just an opportune time for her to explore her relationship with him. After he broke things off with her, she started mentioning more and more that she wanted to stop the whole poly thing and for it to just be me and her again. I blew her off many, many times, telling her I was poly, and this is what I wanted and she agreed to, and if she was feeling lonely, that I would do anything I could to help, up to and including making her an OKC profile and attempting to find her a suitable match, which I did.
A few weeks ago, she gets a text message from her ex bf. They text back and forth for a while, and she decides to go to his house supposedly as friends. I'm fine with this, even if they do get back together. She comes home and admits they had sex, which also was fine, as I hoped if they got back together, it would help with her feelings of being left out when I was on a date/spending the night with someone else. About 3 days or so later, we fight, and she decides she's had enough and is moving in with her ex as "roomates". I'm sure that will last, given her last visit as "friends". That's neither here nor there though. I do kinda feel awful though, like I've been passed over just because he fufills some needs that I don't, the main one being that he's monogamous.
Then of course it seems that all else I had going for me falls down like a house of cards at the same time, whatever relationships I had going "need some space" or "no longer want to be together"...and I can't seem to find very many poly friendly people in TN that are compatible with me anyway, so this seems to be all coming together to say that I'm gonna get to spend my life alone, and it just sucks.
I'm sorry, I know this is really long winded of me for a first post, especially given that I kinda talk too much when I get going anyway. If you read this far, congrats, and thanks for taking the time. I've read a lot on this board, and it seems to be filled with intelligent, accepting people. Nice to meet you all.
I got together with my soon-to-be ex when I was 13. It was Romeo and Juliet, running from the cops, all kinds of fun. We ran away together twice. I always had yearnings for being with more than one person, which at the time manifested itself as "I want two chicks at the same time, that's what I'd do if I had a million bucks, yup." When we finally got married, we became swingers for a long period of time, but every time I'd suggest an outing, she would get mad, or if we got together with someone, I could sense resentment afterward, sometimes expressed, sometimes not.
We've had several breakups/getting back together type things in the last year or so. The first one where I could tell she was serious, I made an error in promising that I'd never attempt to be with, have sex with, or even look at another chick, if that's what it took to make her happy. I failed, as you can imagine, as shortly afterward I discovered the polyamorous lifestyle through xeromag's site, and began to understand some of the feelings I'd had over the years and why swinging never seemed to be enough or fufilling. I should mention here that we did have one thing where we were attempting to have a triad relationship with our neighbor at one time, before we even knew what poly was. It fell through, and my wife said "Never again.". Anyway, I brought this lifestyle up to her, with the additional thought that it would afford her an opportunity to be with the man who she was going to likely be with as soon as she left me, if she had. She obviously had feelings for him, so she read some of the things on different sites about how to conduct such a relationship, and eventually agreed, with the mention that she would try it, but she had a feeling that things would turn out badly.
She got with her bf, I tried with several different relationships which came and went, and around christmas of last year, her bf broke up with her, claiming issues relating to not getting enough time with her/wanting to be monogamous with her anyway. She's essentially a monogamous person as well, this was just an opportune time for her to explore her relationship with him. After he broke things off with her, she started mentioning more and more that she wanted to stop the whole poly thing and for it to just be me and her again. I blew her off many, many times, telling her I was poly, and this is what I wanted and she agreed to, and if she was feeling lonely, that I would do anything I could to help, up to and including making her an OKC profile and attempting to find her a suitable match, which I did.
A few weeks ago, she gets a text message from her ex bf. They text back and forth for a while, and she decides to go to his house supposedly as friends. I'm fine with this, even if they do get back together. She comes home and admits they had sex, which also was fine, as I hoped if they got back together, it would help with her feelings of being left out when I was on a date/spending the night with someone else. About 3 days or so later, we fight, and she decides she's had enough and is moving in with her ex as "roomates". I'm sure that will last, given her last visit as "friends". That's neither here nor there though. I do kinda feel awful though, like I've been passed over just because he fufills some needs that I don't, the main one being that he's monogamous.
Then of course it seems that all else I had going for me falls down like a house of cards at the same time, whatever relationships I had going "need some space" or "no longer want to be together"...and I can't seem to find very many poly friendly people in TN that are compatible with me anyway, so this seems to be all coming together to say that I'm gonna get to spend my life alone, and it just sucks.
I'm sorry, I know this is really long winded of me for a first post, especially given that I kinda talk too much when I get going anyway. If you read this far, congrats, and thanks for taking the time. I've read a lot on this board, and it seems to be filled with intelligent, accepting people. Nice to meet you all.