So. Theory goes you should know certain things by a certain age. How you are meant to know these things if no-one actually tells you is something that… no-one actually tells you.

I have never been in love. Of course, I have loved people, things, stuff… but I have never *been* in love with another human being.

Until now.

Finding myself in this position, at my age, is an odd, but hugely enjoyable sensation.

I am lucky enough to be falling in love with a wonderful woman.

I have determined, despite the lack of pointers given to me by people in my past, that I am falling in love partly because of the following criteria:

I am excited by this lady,
I am stimulated mentally by this lady,
I laugh so much with this lady,
I think about this lady continuously,
I want to be a better man for this lady,
This lady is interesting,
This lady is creative,
This lady is smart,
This lady likes to be silly,
This lady is not afraid of emotion,
I know I can trust this lady,

(The above is by no means exhaustive, just for reference, not valid to residents of Ohio.)

It isn’t as if I haven’t felt some of these things before, so what makes this different?

Well, this is where I think I finally realised *why* they don’t tell you stuff. It’s because it’s almost impossible to describe. It’s a sense that everything suddenly makes sense.

Things that caused you uncertainty in the past, now don’t give you a moments pause. The fact that the person is 3,000+ miles away is a mere inconvenience — you’ll make that work.

So, yeah, you can still learn stuff at 49. Trick is I think, just like when you were at school back then, you have to be willing to want to learn it.

Jill, I love you.