I just turned 31 and I've never been in a relationship. My whole life, I’ve been trying to do the right thing, finish school, get a degree, build a career right after. Even when I was going through a really rough time at work, I couldn’t just quit and take a break. My mother got some bad test results again and we were afraid her cancer might come back. I was so stressed that I took a job 80 km away.

My free time is extremely limited. I barely have time to meet someone. I travel a lot and I’d like someone who lives relatively close. But on dating apps, there’s almost no one from my town. In the past few days, there were barely five guys in my city of over 50,000 people.

I’m desperate. I spend my days alone, wondering where I went wrong. Time is slipping away, and my life consists of nothing but work and nothing else.

I went to therapy, but the therapist didn’t really take my problem seriously. Her advice was just to “go out more,” but the nightlife here is just tourists, teenagers, and people doing drugs.

Some people say you shouldn’t force love, that it comes naturally, but that hasn’t happened to me—and I can’t wait anymore. It’s especially hard during family lunches, when all my cousins have partners and I’ve never brought anyone with me. Even my mother, in her 60s, managed to find a new boyfriend after my father passed away. I feel awful every single day.