College is a place where you’re supposed to find who you are and be as active as you possibly can. Now that doesn’t mean hook up with as many people as you want, (unless that’s your style) but I mean getting involved with everything and anything school wise. I went to Penn State University meaning I was just another face in the crowd with 44,000 other students that went there. In order to get yourself known in a big university like that, you would have to go out for clubs, work in the downtown coffee shop around the corner, get involved with sororities and fraternities or even start your own TV show. In my honest opinion dating will just hinder you from doing all that.
I’m not going to sit here and tell you that you should never date in college but I am saying to weigh your options and to make sure you know what you’re getting yourself into before you get into it too fast. I dated a guy my freshman year of college. Not even three months into my collegiate career and I was already head over heels for him. I thought, hey this is the perfect way to start my freshman year of college, new school, new boyfriend, I felt on top of the world. But as the relationship went on I found myself missing out on things that I planned on doing in college before I even met him. I wasn’t as involved with clubs as I wanted to be and I wanted to join a sorority (but was told he would break-up with me if I even joined) so instead I picked him over my own experiences. Yes, I could have said no and done my own thing and not have cared about his feelings, but that is not what relationships are about. They are about supporting one another through whatever each other want to do and to not question their motives and ideals. If you don’t have that mind-set, then you probably shouldn’t be dating.
I wouldn’t take back my relationship for anything but I do wish that I would have waited a lot longer to have one. We ended up breaking up and moving on to better things. After that though, I found myself being more involved with our school’s newspaper, canning for THON, going out with friends, playing sports, and really finding who I was as an individual. College is a place to self-express oneself and to figure out what you do and do not like. You don’t know what you want yet, who you’re going to meet and you will probably change your major about 1,000 times; there is no room for serious dating. Until you find what it is you are looking for, I suggest you focus on yourself, make memories with your friends and tell dating to move out of the way, at least for a little while!