The Hangout Syndrome

For young people it is hard to get your foot in the door and start that friendship. The world has shifted from personal dating to texting and "Let's hang out". We have lost the ability to communicate. We are afraid to put ourselves out there due to our heart being broken or seeing our friend's heart being broken. Fact of the matter is you WILL be hurt. Someone will crush your heart, crumple it, like a wad of paper and throw it away. If you don't put yourself out there you will remain that same fragile person, your expectations will never change, and you may never meet that person you are meant to love forever. To be quite frank it is sad. There are so many people who complain but aren't willing to put themselves out there and when they are they can't find someone who is willing to do the same. I know it is scary. Trust me, it scares me to death to trust someone with my heart. But, through those heartbreaks it will bring you to someone who you will love for eternity. You'll be a better person for the pain that you have been through.

Come on guys... don't make the girls ask you out on dates. Buck up and become a man, ask them out too. Don't just say, "Hey you wanna hang out some time?" Be frank, say "Hey I like you let's go on a date." Then set a date! Also a big mistake guys make is they call a girl and ask her out with nothing planned and then ask her what she would like to do. Come on.... if you are going to take the initiative to ask a girl out that you like it is common courtesy to have the date planned too. When you call, yes call, to ask her out be polite if she turns you down. Don't text her to ask her out, that is just lame. Also when you go to pick her up don't just honk the horn to tell her you are there. Seriously, any guy who does that I will not go out with. I want a man not a boy. If I am going to set aside time to go out with a guy it is the least he can do to take a few steps from his car and come up to my door. I mean is that really too much to ask?

Dates can be simple. In fact I prefer those. The high stress dates with dinner and a dance often turn out to be dudds more than studds. I'm totally up for just going hiking or simply hanging out at a park. Service projects are also fun dates. Still, you can't always go on group dates with people if you expect to get to know that special someone. There is always distractions. It can be really hard to get to know them on a deeper level and actually open up in that setting. I'd definitely recommend a mixture of the two because it is good to see how they interact with others too. Movies are terrible dates if you are trying to get to know someone you just met unless it is paired with something else where you can actually talk and interact. You can't really talk in a dark movie theater without being rude. Respect the girl or guy and their schedule. If the date was originally for dinner and a movie keep it to that. Don't drag it on forever or you may not get another date. Save it for another date. Most importantly have fun! Well that's all for my rant for now. Enjoy going out there and dating everyone :)

Random Fact: The international telephone dialing code for Antarctica is 672. "Hello, this is a penguin, who's calling?"