Dating
and rum-swigging do not mix — beware
Molly
Stewart
At 17 I was asked out on my very first
date by the hottest, most bad-ass boy
at school. His name was Zack. He was sexy and good-looking and he knew it.
He smoked two packs of Marlboros a day and reeked of cheap musk.
In other words, he was every teenage girl’s fantasy and every parent’s
nightmare. He wrote my number on a dollar bill and promised to call. I almost
died because I was so excited.
In high school, I was the girl you never really remembered, except for the
time I fell down the stairs and everybody busted up laughing. That was my legacy,
along with the tacky, red stick-on fake nails I wore to make me seem glamorous.
It was that way until Mr. Popular asked me out and I finally became cool. On
our date I had to drive because he had his license revoked for drunk driving.
I ignored that red flag, along with how he tried to order us wine at the Olive
Garden and made me stop at Wal-Mart on the way home to buy jugs of vodka.
At his apartment in the scary part of town populated with a run-down Big Lots
and dollar stores, I happily sipped the very strong drink he handed me as he
chained-smoked cigarettes. We fooled around until I told him “no” and
he showed me the door.
It was hardly the romantic evening I had envisioned. I only fell for him because
he could make me almost faint looking so unbelievably hot in a wife-beater
and baggy jeans.
My shallow attitude made me realize bad boys may be alluring and seductive,
but behind all that aftershave and hair gel, they’re immature, insensitive
boys. The next time I dated I chose an older, wiser, just-as-sexy nice guy
who treated me with so much respect and kindness that we’re still together
today.
Many young singles grapple with choosing between attractive-but-bitchy girls
and sweet-but-boring guys. Dating in the new millennium is tough.
When our parents were kids it went like this: boy meets girl, they fall in
love and get married. Today, with shows like “Elimidate” and “Next,” girls
are taught that kissing each other is the only way to make guys like them.
Call me traditional or old-fashioned, but what ever happened to romance? Today
a girl is lucky if a guy even holds open the door. Forget about bringing her
flowers or meeting her parents — those days disappeared with poodle skirts
and boys named Chip.
Back then, gentlemen and ladies considered holding hands taboo. Now a full
on ten-second French kiss is required at the end of the date, with sex expected
after the third. Is this how we find true love?
I doubt your future husband will be found at a bar where he asks for your number
only after you’ve downed a couple and slurred “I love you” in
his ear.
Come on ladies, you deserve more. I suggest you demand he take you out to dinner
when you’re sober and he actually waits to sleep with you. After all,
men love the thrill of the hunt, so if you give it up on the first date there’s
no mystery left and he’s already bored.
Zack was a major jerk who thought because he spent seven bucks on my spaghetti
with marinara he deserved to get in my pants. Not all guys are that superficial.
Sure, attraction has a lot to do with dating. Initially, what draws a man to
a woman may be the way her curves fill out a tight red dress. But when the
sun goes up and the makeup is gone, what’s left is a person’s heart
and whether they are nice to the waiter or if they get up early to make you
waffles.
With humiliating dates, the end of romance and dating shows that portray plastic,
muscle-toned, blonde airheads as normal men and women, it’s easy to get
discouraged with the dating world.
But then there’s that rush, those
butterflies in your stomach that you get when the object of your desire notices
you and finally asks you out.
That unbelievable, amazing feeling makes the
horror and pain of dating all worth it. Just remember that if your date swigs
rum like it’s water, you might want to grab your purse and run screaming
out the door.
Molly Stewart is a freshman journalism major.
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