I am like soooo self-centered . . . which means I try not to make rules for myself, or blindly follow the rules of others, that arbitrarily limit my happiness!
There are probably several million people in the world that could be the best "ONE"

as you ladies are so fond of saying. This is highly probable given a population of 6 billion! But the trick is meeting them!
And I want to meet them. Which means I need to limit the amount of artifical rules that I make for myself that limit me even giving people a chance.
Some people won't date another race . . . there's a few billion people you can't meet in dating context. Or another religion, scratch out millions more . . . Or drum roll please . . . people that are beyond a certain age!
My palms are getting sweaty and I'm getting palpitations thinking of all those potentially awesome people I can't even let myself date to find out if they ARE awesome if I follow these artificial rules! Pause while I catch my breath I felt faint for a minute there.
If you have to many rules for meeting new people you are just one of those people that won't let yourself be happy! So doom on you for not meeting awesome people, or settling in the end for mediocre, luke warm relationships.
Anyway, dating someone older doesn't guarentee they might be more mature, but it does mean they have had more opportunities in sheer time to learn from life, or be a little more financially set.
So like a coat, you try them on, and if they don't fit, you take them off! Before you begin to chafe or freeze