There's a lot of stuff you can read about here on TRP and understand to a certain level, without having to experience it for yourself. It helps you to prepare for situations before you encounter them personally, allows you to learn wisdom that previous generations have passed down by a male mentor, and has (no doubt) saved any number of guys here from getting their fingers burned terribly by some of the tough realities other guys learn the hard way. And for that, we should always be thankful for TRP as a tool. And yet-

It's one thing to read about different subjects here and understand them, but another to experience it for first-hand and feel the gravity of it actually taking place in your world.

It's one thing to read about depression and another thing to wake up one morning not wanting to go to work or even to get out of bed- and legitimately not caring about the consequences- or anything else for that matter.

It's one thing to read about approach anxiety and how to beat it, another thing to see a random girl in public who makes you heart skip a beat and immediately go mentally blank about what to say to her and realise that your only option is to go up to her and try initiating conversation with zero idea what's going to come out of your mouth, how she is going to respond to what comes out of your mouth or what anybody else within earshot might think about you approaching a random girl like that.

It's one thing to understand abundance mentality, but another thing to know you should cut a girl whose company (and all it's benefits) you really enjoy, even though in doing so you realise all those things you like about her are going to become nothing more than memories and you don't have any other prospects on the scene at this moment in time.

It's one thing to talk about faith and understand its' principles, another to actually make that leap into the mist and hold your breath waiting to see how you land on the other side.

Likewise...

There was a girl I liked back in high school we'll call Shannon. I won't bother describing her because it's not really the point, but needless to say Shannon was that rare combination of beauty and raw sexual appeal. On top of that, she was feminine and pleasant with nice manners. The kind of girl any respectable parent would have as first pick to babysit their kids. While she was aware that plenty of guys liked her, she seemed oblivious to why that was, maybe still scarred by the guy in junior high who told her she should wear a bag over her head?

I liked her and (looking back) I realise now there was a window of time in senior high where she was interested in me- but alas I was too much of a pussy and too clueless to act. I let that chance slip away (haven't we all been there?) and even though I got over her soon, I still always found her massively attractive.

I'm now well into my 30's and I can only lament the other girls like her over the years (ones who I fancied but failed to get/ ones who fancied me but I was never fussed about/ those ones I fancied and actually had a chance with but ruined due to any number of reasons) with years of experience, hindsight and the wisdom shared here. Even now, sometimes I think back to those more innocent days and think "Man, if only I'd played things differently/ not been such a pussy/ known then what I know now....".

Cut to today and I'm at the mall, walking along and then amongst that crowd of Christmas shoppers I recognise Shannon straight away. I see her, but she doesn't see me- she's chatting with a woman she must know from somewhere. As I glance at Shannon, I see she's put on weight now. She's not fat as such, but solid-looking and this stuns me because in her youth she was petite with a delicate frame. She got snapped up in her early 20's. Married. Had a couple of kids. I would still go there if the opportunity arose, perhaps more for old times' sake than anything else? Yet in those brief few seconds- as I walked right past and then (further on) glanced back her way again- it was surreal and curiously bittersweet-

Because back there was the girl who (without being too graphic) I have probably fapped to the thought of more than any other over the years when going back through the old masturbatory mental catalogue...perhaps as much for the "one that got away" factor as for the beauty of her youth. And yet now, while still attractive, she just looked like any number of other 30-something housewives after they've popped out a couple of kids...

I walked away and almost felt bad for her.

Because regardless of how beautiful she was, how sexy you found her, her personality traits or suitability for a LTR- their physical beauty fades as the years go on. The wall remains undefeated.

Even for Shannon...