Help The Oblivious Fellow.

[scotdalriada]

So I'm thinking of starting to date. Given that everyone who reads this has more relationship experience than me...advice, anyone?

Comments

[aldayp]

Be yourself. Cliche, I know, but oh so important. Pretending to be someone you're not will only lead to a lot of pain later on.

Don't be afraid to laugh at yourself. There will be painful/awkward/embarrassing moments, and the best thing is to not let that get you down (for long). If you learn something, anything at all, even if it's just to never do that again, then it was worth it. And many embarrassing things are just plain funny once a little time has passed.

[ndgirl84]

Advice: Don't date just to date. Only date if you've found a particular person whom you are truly interested in dating. This may sound obvious, but if someone had beat me over the head with it a few years ago, I'd be much happier today.

[quintessentialp]

I'd agree that you shouldn't just randomly go out and date the first girl you see, but I would still suggest that you not set the bar too high for dating--for permanent commitment, sure, but you can't possibly judge something like that before you start going out with someone. If there is something about someone that interests you to the point where you think it might be nice to have them as a friend, and you don't know of any "dealbreakers," I'd suggest checking it out. You'll learn a lot about what you're looking for really quickly. I went on several semi-dates at the start of college, and one brief relationship, and while none of them were valuable in that they amounted to anything, they did help me figure out things I was looking for and things that I hadn't realized I disliked in a romantic prospect. That's sort of what I meant by dealbreakers--if you really want a family, no point in dating a woman who feels children are a burden. If you love the countryside, you shouldn't look into someone who dreams of New York City. I'm not