Late one night at a party my sophmore year at college, I finally stopped trying to swim against the tide. I had grown weary of chasing after girls that had no interest in me. The night began when a friend of mine brought some of her friends with her to the party. She introduced me to one of the girls and left me with her, asking if I would keep her company for the night so she wouldn’t feel lonely. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve said I had just been set up on a blind date. She was a nice girl, but hardly talked at all and I found I really had to work hard to keep a conversation going. The evening didn’t really go all that bad, but at the same time, it just wasn’t happening. She didn’t show a whole lot of interest in me, and I wasn’t about to put a whole lot of effort out. Outwardly, we politely said goodbye and thanks but inwardly, I found myself frustrated. Why did it seem I was always around girls that had no interest in me? Why was I not interested in the girls that had shown interest in me? Why did it seem like every relationship with a girl was an uphill climb?<\/p>\n
I thought back to a friend who was now a senior at my old high school. During the previous summer that I spent in Florida<\/a>, we exchanged several letters and phone calls and were becoming increasingly closer friends. I couldn’t help by wonder if she had a crush on me. Of all the girls in my life at the time, she certainly paid more attention to me than anyone else. Yet, despite all that, I had a myriad of reasons not to date her. After my freshman year,<\/a> I was determined not to date any more high school girls. I needed to move on and date college girls. While she was attractive, she didn’t look like the kind of girl I envisioned myself with and while she was clever, intelligent, and articulate, it didn’t seem like our personalities meshed. Also, we had developed a close friendship and we had a common network of friends and I was hesitant to take a chance of disrupting the friendships. I had come up with all these reasons not to date her, but I started wondering, why not?<\/p>\n After that night at the party, I decided it was time to stop fighting it and just ask my friend from high school out. For once, I wanted to know what it was like to be around a girl that wanted to be around me. After all, I was a guy and she was a girl. Why not go out on one date and just see what happens? So I called her up and she agreed to go out for dinner. Of course, when you’re going out with me, you just can’t go on a normal date. On the way to pick her up, I stopped at the ATM to pick up some cash and I totally blanked. I forgot my ATM passcode! I tried three times and sure enough the machine ate my card! Now what do I do. I arrived at her house and met her parents and while I was talking to them, all I could think was “Where am I going to take her when I don’t have a dime in my pocket?” When we got in the car, I remembered that I had some cash hidden away in my dorm room, so I asked her if she would mind going downtown so I could swing by Tech. She was fine with going anywhere so with the change of plans we went downtown and ate dinner there. <\/p>\n What happened that night was so different than any date I had been on before. It wasn’t awkward. It was funny, relaxed, enjoyable. Even after losing my ATM card and having to find a place to eat on the fly, there was no pressure and stress. There was no need to impress her, she already knew me well. When I dropped her off that night I thought to myself, “that had to be the easiest date I have ever been on.” It was a no-brainer to ask her out for a second date. <\/p>\n For the first time in my life, I was truly happy about my dating situation. Things seemed to be falling in place. That means, of course, that circumstances would soon change after a couple months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I got tired of making dating girls so hard. Continue reading