A painful realization, but is it really true? The way you handle words belies your self description as a nobody country girl. The thing that strikes an outsider is that you're dating a very particular kind of guy. High-achieving men who date women half their age who look up to them could not be more of a type! I've been pretty much every dating age, and only a couple of times dated women who were significantly younger. Four of five years, yes, but the biggest difference was 13 years younger, and she was over forty at the time, so it's not as if I was robbing the cradle. I'm not saying it's inherently wrong to date a woman half your age--I've known couples with a huge age difference where the relationship still made psychological sense--but as a general rule, it's pretty safe to assume that a guy who goes after women a generation younger is to some degree using her unfairly. Any guy who is rich and powerful can get younger women easily, but worthy men don't make the women they are with feel that they aren't on their level. Maybe you aren't dating up, but are in fact dating down.