Patience is a virtue. It took until my thirties to find my soulmate and she is the only one I've loved. The list of things I was looking for in a woman would probably be considered unrealistic to most. However, by the law of large numbers, if the probability of such an event is non-zero then meeting such will occur almost surely if you meet enough people. The more time you're going to spend doing something or with someone, the more effort you should make to be sure you're going to be happy with your decision. Thus your marriage and career are near the top of that list.
I was seeking at least the following: physically attractive and fit, academically ambitious, Christian, never married and no kids (but wants them). Some qualities which were icing on the cake when I met my wife: bilingual, Republican, believer in traditional gender roles, amazing cook. My skills, such as being well-organized and good with technology and money fill her weaknesses. Again, I mentioned patience because we were both in our thirties when we met. What still amazes me is that we met in a country neither of us are from. She was there finishing up her master's when I was invited over to give a presentation on my research. I met her my first day there, we clicked and spent most of the week together. After I returned to the US, we kept in touch for six months and then I offered to fly her here to be together for a couple months. After six weeks living together, we both were saying to ourselves "there's no way in heck I want to be across the ocean from this person again!" We tied the knot and filed for her permanent residence. Note that it was fun (in a good way) meeting my in-laws
after I married their daughter.
To this day, she and I still tell each other how lucky and amazed by each other we are literally 10-20 times per day.
