Am I over the hill at 26?

[Pyrrho]

...
I met up with someone through OKC who suggested themselves that we meet, shortly after making this thread, and I thought we clicked really well, but they haven't replied to me since. I wasn't devastated or anything but it is disheartening because beforehand they said they were only looking to make new friends and not necessarily anything more, so I can't just dismiss it as lack of physical attraction, which wouldn't bother me at all. I must have been annoying or boring or offended them or something, or maybe as I feared, my mental health history turned them off even though they work in mental health.  I totally failed to pick up on on whatever it was. That's not promising.

But I am bouncing back!   For me 

It is impossible to know why someone does not contact you back when you don't really know the person. So you should not worry about that happening, as it will almost certainly happen to you, no matter what you do or are like. You could be the greatest guy in the world, and still there will be some who will do that.

You seem prone to think that it must be something wrong with you that causes this. But it can be that that person has bad taste, and does not want what is good. Or it could be totally neutral, that something came up in their life that now makes it inconvenient or practically impossible to work on a new friendship. Really, the possibilities are endless for specific reasons why, so you should not worry about such things.

It is only if this happens constantly with no exceptions, and has happened more than 20 times that you might want to be concerned. And then it may be that the problem is in your approach, that somehow you are meeting up with losers instead of people you really want.

So, relax, and do not let strangers get you upset or worried. Getting worried and upset can make one act in ways that tend to be unattractive to others. So relax and don't let yourself get easily discouraged. After all, you don't need everyone to want you. All it takes is one person, if you are into monogamy. And even if you are not into monogamy, you still don't need everyone to want you, which would be impossible no matter how great you are.