Love knows no age 

"Love knows no age" is one of the most used phrases in Spain in terms of relationships. Usually used when there is a large age difference between the two partners in a couple. For example, if the woman is fifty years old, and the man thirty. 

The relationships have changed a lot in Spain in the last thirty to forty years. After the dictatorship ended, the love habits have relaxed. Now this traditionally Catholic country has become much more open and you can enjoy love at any age, and love does really well at any age! In my case it is so, that I am "in love with love". Since I was little, I've always flirted and sought my true love, and although I am approaching forty ... I still haven’t found it! That's why today I want to tell you about some age-related habits that we have in Spain, when we are together with boys or girls. Today, moreover, homosexuality is quite accepted in my country. Especially in the big cities, but a bit less in the villages or the countryside. 

When I was five, I went to school. Normally in Spain, the classes are mixed, be it a public or a private school. Nowadays there are only a few separate classes in Spain, although this education option is available for families who want it. In school I had my first love. Of course, an innocent and very fun love. His name was Carlos and he was a boy with big glasses and not very pretty. But I remember that he was very funny and he wrote the letters, which we were learning at the time, the best. Usually boys and girls experience many such funny stories in their school days. One day you come home and say to your mother: "I have a boyfriend" or "I have a girlfriend". So you feel older and your mother laughs about these things. This is what happened with me and Carlos. He was my friend, because I had a piece of gum and he begged me to share it with him. I told him that I would only give him some if he wanted to be my friend. "What does that mean?" He asked me. I told him that he would always have to give me his crayons when I asked him and he would have to give me a piece of his sandwich in the break. Despite all this, he wanted to be my "friend"!  

The next crucial stage in matters of love is the youth. It happens everywhere: the hormones, discovering new things ... In my school my class was a real riot! Normally, girls and boys write in this phase slips or ‘love letters', which they secretly slip each other in the classroom or letters with big declarations of love ... For me, my youth had a somewhat difficult time, because I fell in love. If you fall in love, everything is complicated, isn’t it? Especially, if your love is simple and absolutely platonic and is not reciprocated. 

My platonic love was a boy, who was two years older than me and therefore I obviously wasn’t noticed! To be more specific, he did not even know that I existed. But it was true love. I wrote passionate love letters in my diary. When our ways crossed, I thought that all his gestures were dedicated to me ... Eventually I had a big disappointment. I caught that boys eye anyway, but only because he liked my best friend. What a sorrow! 

Fortunately, a few months later, I began to like a guy from my class. And the feeling was very much mutual! We started seeing each other soon thereafter. But don’t think of anything strange. Puppy Love in Spain is fairly quiet and virginal. Although the custom, to have sexual intercourse before marriage, a legacy of our Spanish Catholic tradition, already belongs to the past. Despite all this, sexual intercourse is not very common in relationships between two young people. The dates revolve more around leisure activities: cinema, bowling, hanging out together in a park... 

Later, I began with university. This first friend had since long been forgotten. The university is a major phase in Spain for personal relationships. It is a place where you come out of your solid core and you get to know hundreds, thousands of people from your area. University is connected in many countries with a phase of sexual experimentation and relationships. I believe that this is not so in Spain. If we Spaniards go to university, we have already had one or two relationships that have served us to get to know each other better and to define our sexual identity... 

The Spanish university is not like other universities that we see in movies. There are no wild or crazy parties. The largest part of the festivities is associated with the patron or the patron saint of each faculty, and they take place on the many green areas of the campus outdoors. There I really flirted a lot! The parties and discos in the evening, where I went on the weekend, were the places where I met especially beautiful guys. In these places, you usually got to know the typical "One Night Stand", a guy with whom you make out and never see again in your life. 

At the end, when I was done with college, I had experienced many love affairs. I was at the end of the twenties and wanted to "settle". But I still knew no charming prince: all remained frogs when I kissed them. 

One day I went with a friend who was already over thirty, on a "dating" page on the Internet. This is a very common solution for people who do not find their "better half" today. About five years ago or ten, that was something rare ... And you would have met very strange people! The best in online flirting is patience: you have a lot to talk to people, get to know them and to see who there is on the other side. Actually it’s a stranger, and I didn’t like to meet with anyone. 

So I met a couple of guys and with one I was a year together. He was charming, but he had to go to the USA because of his work. With another I was together for two and a half years. I thought the thing would finally get serious ... But then I found out that he deceived me with a girl who was ten years younger than me! 

In summary, I have had no luck with men ... now at forty I am slowly getting fed up, but I'm still dating men. Now, they are all more interesting, have more experience and the largest part is divorced. The best thing at this age is to do things quietly and not go crazy with love. I'm not changing my lifestyle for anyone - I love my freedom! Although if I finally came to know my perfect Romeo ... Who knows? Love knows no age!