When I was a college student, both women and men asked me for love and dating advice, which perplexed me.

I was a student that wanted to transfer to film school. Later in college, I was focused on graduating. After film school, I focused on building my career and leaving my home town  to give my career a chance to thrive. I didn’t have time to date and I didn’t want a relationship, because I didn’t want to be stuck in my home town. (I use the work stuck intentionally, because that’s how I saw it back then and to some extent now.)

Any advice I gave to my friends, back then, I pulled from academic articles and tex books I read in college about relationships.

Later, I started reading self help books and magazine articles about love, relationships and dating to further expand my knowledge for myself and to help others. In turn, I was able to identify a very rough idea of the type of romantic partner I wanted to date.

My criteria for a romantic partner was so simple. It’s adorable, what I thought I wanted back then, versus what I know I need now. As I have grown older, my views and some of my values have changed.

Through relationships and dating, I know the five qualities I want in my future romantic partner and the type of relationship I want us to have.

Today’s wisdom focuses on skills anyone single or taken, can use to help them strengthen a current relationship or build a future one.

Love – Stephanie XO