Hello! I just joined this forum because I've been wanting to ask some questions. Its mostly because I simply lack the want of a relationship. It doesn't even feel like a temporary thing, I never was interested for years. The only time I did was probably my early teen years, but that just happens to everyone. I'm now 18 years old and I never had a girlfriend nor have I ever kissed anyone. I don't think I ever had someone want to be in a relationship or even flirt with me, and if they did I didn't notice. Everyone thinks that should bother me, which really makes me mad because I seriously don't care at all.
In fact the whole relationship thing kind of pisses me off sometimes because I constantly see people get into relationships and become completely depressed over it, and then ask me why I don't get a girlfriend. I even worked with a guy who seemed really desperate to me. It seemed like every month he was with a new girl who he was trying to get in a relationship with, and pretty much every time the girl didn't have any interest at all. One day he asked me if I was talking to any girls, and I told him I never had an interest in it at all. He seemed really confused by all this, and his next response was to ask if I was gay. To me, that was probably the stupidest response he could have made.
I hope this doesn't make it seem like I'm kind of heartless person, because really I value friendship over everything else. I will say that I'm socially awkward and I sometimes get nervous around new people, but people tell me I give the impression of being really friendly. I really enjoy talking to people helping them out, and even though I can be a bit nervous talking to people, I can't help but smile a lot when someone has a conversation with me. I actually have a lot of friends, I even made prom king in high school.
So I guess what I want to know is, besides all the flirting, kissing, love talk, touchy feely things, and even sex. What is the difference between a relationship and a friendship? Because when you take away those things, which to me don't mean anything, all I can think of is talking, doing things together, and sharing our problems and feelings, which all you need is a good friend for.
So can someone please tell me why relationships are so important to people, and why everyone thinks I'm weird for not wanting to be in one?