I made peace with being alone.
It used to be a lot more painful to be the guy always on the sidelines. Being invited to marriages while you never held hands is not a nice experience. Realizing you're a background character isn't cool for self-confidence.
It wasn't for lack of trying either, even hired a coach (don't do that).
After a time I fell into the wrong internet crowd, it felt nice at first to find people with the same issues I had, made me feel understood. But I could only take so much blaming society, one gender, and pseudo-science before my common sense told me enough was enough. Losing the one community you feel like understands you isn't fun either, still better than staying there.
After 30 I decided enough was enough. I stopped going out so often, stopped trying to meet people and slowly gave up on relationships. It just dawned on me not everyone gets to experience love and while I don't know the future, I might be among them. So I put all my efforts into getting over it.
I sank into hobbies, meditation, work, to keep myself busy. I had other goals to reach and at least it felt like I was succeeding at something there. Took me a number of tried, but I did find a routine that worked out for me.
I'm middle-aged now. I realized recently that this ship had sailed as far as I'm concerned, and that's okay. It's not perfect, I still felt that little pinch when I saw happy couples holding hands or that sort of thing. But instead of having my thoughts linger on about it, I quickly move on now. And I wish my libido would follow the pattern of people my age and go down instead of up, but I manage.
I'm happy I'm not as hung up on it as I once used to be, and I got stuff to keep me occupied and make me smile.
Thanks for reading, all the best folks.