[kibwen]

Man here. Before getting serious in my current relationship, I sat down with my girlfriend and gently initiated a frank conversation about about what each of us expect out of a relationship and what our short-term and long-term priorities are, not just in terms of relationship goals, but also in terms of general life goals to see whether or not a relationship would hinder or help those goals. As someone who's experienced, not one, but two traumatic parental divorces in my life, the last thing I want is to get ten years into a relationship before discovering that our goals are incompatible. This isn't anything exclusive to women.