by Carrie Brandon

Created on: February 28, 2009   Last Updated: March 01, 2009

From I was a little girl, I've always pictured how my life could be.... what job I'd have, where I'd live and ultimately if I'd really ever meet the man of my dreams. Standing here today I can safely say yes.... there is such a thing as a true man of our dreams. My life's been a roller-coaster ride of emotions, going from one bad relationship to another but suddenly when I just about gave up hope I met my partner. And from the first kiss we shared I just knew he was the person I'd spent my whole life waiting on.

Growing up I guess I had the usual images in my head of what my perfect man would be like... admittedly quite cliched images thanks to years of Disney films where the "Princes" all tended to look the same. And as I grew older those images changed, I grew up and what I wanted in a man naturally changed. Growing up it was all about the looks, but I soon realised it takes much more than appearances to make a relationship work. After every break-up I'd make a mental note of new requirements I had for the man of my dreams to have ,you know the usual... wanting a sensitive man after a break up with a guy who practically made me beg for affection, then wanting a man who was into sport after a break up with a man who practically had a couch glued to his derriere , and the old favourite...wanting a man who loved me for me after goodness knows how many break ups with men who kept trying to mould me into their perfect woman. Through every relationship I almost had a mental tick box in my head, measuring up these men to see if any of them really where everything I was looking for. I admit some came close, yet I always remained unfulfilled. Something was missing.

After my hardest break up last year I had to do a lot of searching within myself to figure out why it always seemed to go wrong for me. I looked back through all the dates I'd been on, relationships I'd had and I had to admit... I had a pattern. Here I was proclaiming to my friends that I wanted to meet the man of my dreams , someone who would complete me and make me truly happy yet here I was dating men I knew from the offset would be bad for me.I'd spent years searching for someone that didn't make me feel compromised yet so many times settled for men that did just that, I've always preferred taller men yet spent years with men who where shorter than me and I'd always loved men who showed their emotions yet spent hours agonising over those who didn't... So I made a decision to not date anymore until I was

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