One minute you’re planning your weekend together, the next you’re dissecting text messages like a detective looking for clues to answer: What went wrong? What did I miss? Could this have gone differently?

Dating involves a series of decisions. Some are minor and straightforward, others are complicated and emotion-laden.

Does dating ever leave you spiraling: stuck in your head, overthinking a text, or wondering what that look meant?

There’s a popular idea in modern dating that being sex-positive, confident, and open-minded means sleeping together early — even on the first or second date — is not a big deal.

Maybe they were attentive over text and made plans regularly, but deeper conversations never really happened.

Unfortunately, it’s one of those things you often don’t notice until you’re doing more than your share — or feeling the strain when no one is.

Emotional maturity is often misunderstood.

It doesn’t mean being calm all the time or never getting upset.

We hear a lot about emotional intelligence these days — but before you get to maturity or communication, it all starts with something simpler (and often overlooked): awareness.

It’s completely normal to want answers. We all want to make sense of what happens, especially when it feels personal.

But when the answers don’t come, it can leave you stuck, second-guessing yourself, and losing momentum.