My girlfriend (24F) and I (24M) just had a mutual break-up after an 8 year relationship. How do I proceed?

My girlfriend and I have been having some pretty serious talks about our long standing relationship and how we are as people. We agreed that although we have really good chemistry together and love to be around one another there are certain elements about us as individuals that conflict and can sometimes be unhealthy for the other party, so we mutually agreed that we needed to separate and work on ourselves for a bit with the possibility or maybe getting together again a few years down the road but no guarantee.

We're kind of high school sweethearts and have been together since grade 11 or so and have had our fair share of ups and downs. She was my first proper girlfriend, the first girl I had sex with and, of course, my first long relationship. After so many years together, I'm at a bit of a loss about how to move on.

I live in australia and have never actually dated before since we we're classmates that became friends and got together that way. After such a long period I don't think I want anything serious right now and think I just want a period of experiencing what it's like to meet girls and hookups, all that stuff but as someone who's never dated both online or in person it's a bit overwhelming and more than intimidating on where I should start.

I've looked around at a few dating apps/sites but just reading the reviews and experiences makes it a hard decision on which one to go with and because of all this quarentine business I'm nervous that even if I could find a woman in a bar she wouldn't want to touch me with a 6ft pole.

Basically just confused and looking for some advice on whether I should be looking more in person or try online and what people would recommend for going about either of those.

TL;DR: Just got put of a long relationship and don't know where to go next.

Submitted June 29, 2020 at 03:40AM by HazeWasTakenWasTaken https://ift.tt/38bWbkb