Being an old-fashioned lover in the new era of millennial dating is tough. It causes you to go insane from texts you got no response to, sleepless nights and simply the fact that you are alone. Let me make this clear first; I don't need someone to love me in order for me to survive. However, it definitely makes life a lot easier when I have someone to go to for any and every problem or life situation I have knowing that they will be 100 percent honest with me because they are invested in my future as well. As an old-fashioned lover, I expect certain things from life that this new era of dating just does not give me.

I don't understand "Tinder" or any other dating app like it.

Yes, I have these apps and use them probably just as frequently as you—maybe even more often than you. I don't understand how you can meet someone online knowing that there's a possibility that the conversation will solely remain on that app. Does no one simply want to hang out as friends? You meet someone on this app, sometimes from hundreds of miles away from you, and then you expect to fall in love via chat messages online? Where's the romance in that? I have always loved the spontaneity of romance, and all of these apps are just tearing that side of dating away.

I don't hook up.

Yeah, I'm going to talk about sex. I take my sex life very seriously—I don't just throw myself around and let anyone take a ride. I have tried and tried to fit in with this trend of having no emotional connection with sexual partners. My emotions can't handle a one night stand. When I am on a level with someone that personal to where I trust them with my body, I always develop strong feelings for them. "How can others do it?" That's exactly what I have asked myself every time I find that I am incapable of a hookup. When I have forced myself to try this side of the dating scene, all I am left with is a broken heart and depression to follow it.

"There are plenty of fish in the sea" doesn't mean the same thing to me anymore.

This is something that literally all of your friends will tell you when you're feeling down and out about your love life as a millennial. I don't buy it. People who say this obviously have had the luck of the draw when it comes to dating or they have simply never even tried to date someone. Yeah, there are millions of "fish" out there; however, I am only going to come in contact with about one percent of those fish. The other 99 percent won't even bite when I'm fishing.

I don't expect my significant other to be perfect.

Once again, dating apps have changed a lot of ideas around dating. With dating apps, we are always looking for something better than what we have. That's not what I want, either. I love to learn, and more importantly, I love to learn about people. I want to know what makes you tick as a person. I want to know what calms you down more than anything else when you're stressed out. I want to know everything about you, and I expect flaws with that. I have flaws myself, and I find it ridiculous that most millennials are out there searching for perfection. That's not what love is about.

I'm committed.

Millennials have a problem with labels. Most of my friends stay in the "talking" stage of a relationship for a while. What even is "talking"...? Talking is a way of saying, "I think I want to settle with you because I can't find anything else, but I'm not quite sure yet. Give me a few months to figure it out." No! When I see someone that I'm interested in, I want them and only them. I know that. If you don't know that, then they probably aren't the right person for you to be dating—if we can even call "talking" dating anymore. I'm a committed person in everything I do, and that doesn't change when it comes to my relationships.

I don't know what the solution is for an old-fashioned lover in the millennial dating scene—partially because I'm still looking for the solution myself. I encourage all of us to throw away the dating apps and the way that we treat our relationships currently. I've been through so much heartbreak and seen so much more. Learn to take risks. Learn to actually date someone and get to know them for who they truly are. Don't set your expectations so high. Don't look for perfection. Simply be yourself. If we go back to the fundamentals of dating, our relationships will be so much stronger and more meaningful than the useless non-meaningful ones we have currently. Until everyone else around us realizes that, old-fashioned lovers will have to continue to struggle in this new era of dating.