Let’s be real — dating seriously sucks. It’s one of those necessary evils in life — we hate it, but we do it anyway because we want to find love. Of course, that doesn’t mean we don’t get to complain and commiserate about all of the reasons dating is the worst.
- It’s expensive. Gone are the days when guys would rebut your move to pull out your wallet, insisting that they’d happily pick up the check. Now, they just look relieved when you pull out your credit card. You’re all for equality, but man, those meals can add up quickly! So much for those new clothes you wanted to buy.
- It’s exhausting. You have no idea how you used to pull all of those late nights in college, but that’s just not you anymore. Late-night drinks just aren’t exciting these days. Welcome to being old.
- Most dates feel more like job interviews than enjoyable outings.Why do you feel like you’re always reciting your resume to your dates? You know it’s bad when you accidentally blurt out your GPA, forgetting that you’re not actually on an interview. Oops.
- It’s so hard to get to know someone over dinner or drinks.Eating dinner together might actually be the worst way to build intimacy. There’s that weird eye contact, you never know what to do with your hands before your food arrives, and you end up just talking about the food all night and wondering why everyone in your generation is such a food-obsessed weirdo. Dinner is easy, but it’s definitely not exciting.
- Most people are looking for temporary partners, not life partners.And nobody wants to define relationships anymore. Why does it seem like nobody wants to commit to anything even a week in advance, let alone months or years?
- The older you get, the more difficult it is for someone to understand your past. Your life has been kind of a winding road to get to where you are now, so anybody who thinks they can look at where you are and immediately know where you came from is mistaken.
- You never want to give up your valuable time with your friends. Chances are that if you’re single, you’ve probably found a fun and supportive group of friends who would do anything for you. Why give up a chance to spend time with your buddies just to go on another boring date that may not even amount to anything?
- Somehow you always end up coming off as the crazy cat lady. Or the crazy dog guy. When you’re single, people make assumptions about you that may or may not be accurate. Liking animals and enjoying a perfectly reasonable amount of alone time suddenly sends “crazy” signals. This game can be insanely judgmental.
- You have to explain to your friend that her “awesome” colleague is actually an a-hole. She swears that you two are totally made for each other, so how do you tell her that he actually didn’t call you back because you said you wouldn’t sleep with him on the third date?
- You start to second-guess yourself. Even you start to judge yourself when you don’t have any success at finding love. You’re amazing, you swear! Now if only everyone else could be a little bit more amazing, too, you’d be all set.
