I worry that whatever I say isn't going to be remotely useful to anyone else. I got happy, but if you had my relationship, you might hate it. All my relationships were terrible before this one, and I think the biggest thing that's changed is that I got lucky and met the right person. If I found myself single again, I think I'd look for different things now. Someone who was genuinely caring and friendly and smiled all the time, because that's what I love about him. When he went to kiss me for the first time, he didn't look scared, he had the biggest smile I have ever seen.
One thing I would say is that when you find someone, don't spend all your time together sitting on the sofa. Of course you'll have to do that sometimes when you're tired and out of money. But when you have the opportunity, go out and do stuff, get on random trains at midnight, (we did this, arrived in Brighton at 1am and asked the staff where the hotels were!) go and see and do everything that interests you. If you break up at least you won't regret any of it.