The “high school sweetheart” couple is rarely a reality which, to many, is unfortunate. The truth is, only 2 percent of married couples were high school sweethearts.
Although romanticized heavily throughout media, chances are most of us won’t have our Thirteen Going on Thirty moments.
For many of us, dating in High School is just awkward.
From silent first dates to people without manners, through every tense moment, one good thing comes from it all: funny stories.
We have all been on both sides of awkward interactions. While in the moment they feel like the end of the world, in a couple years they end up being nothing more than a good laugh with friends and family.
Lakeland students are living these stories out every day, and although most never want to relive their awkward dating experiences, some appreciate the laugh and deserve to share their stories.
Someone dropped in an anonymous tip that sums up perfectly just how awkward dating in younger years can be.
“Not mine, but one of my best friends’ stories. They had a date and I love them, but they’re obsessed with hygiene. They and their date kissed but then they had to pull over to throw up like two minutes later,” one student, who chose to remain anonymous, said.
Now, if that story doesn’t make you cringe, I am not really sure what will. But as someone who has been on a few dates myself, I can relate to the very same feeling of wanting to pull over and throw up.
Sometimes, dates aren’t even worth bothering. For Gloria Peterson, she felt this very same way.
“He made me drive and pay and didn’t even say thank you! It was not me and him alone on this date however, two of my friends were in my backseat under blankets the entire time.” Peterson said.
While we may not get the best partners out of these unfortunate experiences, it seems to me like friendships tend to strengthen through the comedy of these tense dates.
Personally, this has led me to ending up in some strange situations.
For example, the time I went on a first date with a guy, and he ended up talking about his dog the whole time.
Another anonymous source relates to dating bad conversations.
“One time I was on this movie date with this girl and she talked about her mom the whole movie, she just complained about her mom the whole time and they weren’t even good complaints. It was just like that she makes her clean her room,” one person said.
Of course many individuals have also fallen victim to the infamous “stand-up.”
While in movies there’s fireworks when they kiss, and happily ever after, reality is much more boring and sometimes leaves you waiting for someone who never planned on showing up.
To any of you who can relate to this mundane reality, nearly fifty percent of the world has experienced this. Trust in the fact that you’ll be laughing with your future spouse about it someday.
An instance of this phenomenon is a moment I commonly look back on and deeply cringe.
I was driving through a Dairy Queen drive-thru with a newly acquired boyfriend in the passenger seat. Now this goes without saying, but it was already awkward enough.
And it did not get any better when I went to order and laid on the horn on accident.
I found myself in tears from laughing that I could no longer order, and proceeded to reverse out of the entire drive-thru.
What made this the most awkward you may ask? The boy with me did not laugh a single time.
So if any of you can connect to these tense situations, know that your dating stories make for a good laugh, and for that we are all grateful.
