When you’re single, it can feel like there’s no hell quite like a crappy first date. Being stuck with the wrong person for just an hour can feel like you’re suffering for days on end. When you’re faced with yet another horrendous date that leads nowhere, you have to put things into perspective and realize that these things are way worse than spending one more day on your own:
- Getting sick. You can handle a bad date. But if you were stuck in bed with the flu or worse, you would definitely feel even more lousy. Don’t get so overdramatic about your hatred of dating that you lose sight of what you do have: your health and your life.
- Losing someone you love. When you’re in the middle of listening to some jerk’s racist jokes, you might feel that literally nothing on Earth could be more painful than what you’re going through at that moment. But even though it might be a bit drastic, try to remember that you at least have the people you love to support you when it comes time to vent about this loser. Experiencing the loss of someone special, whether through death or just a cross-country relocation, is infinitely more painful than sitting across from a crappy person for an hour or two.
- Breaking up with a BFF. Friendship breakups are horrible. It’s absolute torture to have to let go of someone who has been there for you through hell and back. The truth is that while you can absolutely get through any bad date, you’re going to have a much harder time getting over this.
- Getting fired. It’s hard enough to find a job these days, and if you get laid off unexpectedly (or even expectedly), it really sucks. It’s even worse if you actually love your job and constantly tried to get better at it.
- Being steadily unemployed. Not having a job sucks bad enough, and when you really, really want to work and have a purpose in life, it can really get under your skin. You would definitely take steady employment over a crappy date any day, wouldn’t you?
- Feeling super lost. Your 20’s are pretty much a roller coaster that never ends. If you’re feeling lost and like you’re not sure who you are anymore or where you’re going, that kind of self-reflection is going to affect you a lot more than any bad date that you go on.
- Having no work/life balance. Sure, this is a super complicated subject and it looks different for every person. But if your life is really all work and nothing else, you’re going to get exhausted and burnt out quickly, and before you know it, you’ll end up miserable. Isn’t your quality of life more important than any date that doesn’t work out?
- Watching a friend go through a tough time. Sometimes it can be even more difficult to watch your BFF suffer than when you’re going through something yourself. You’re not always sure how to help or if there’s even anything that you can do. Since some friends really are forever, their happiness is a lot more important than a few hours with some loser.
- Going to the dentist. People joke about wanting to get a root canal more than they want to go on another date, and there’s some truth to that. But a routine dentist appointment is definitely worse than a date. It’s uncomfortable and sometimes painful, just like a first date. The problem with the dentist is that you can’t bail early when things get rough.
- Fighting with a friend. It’s not always easy to get along with your friends, even if they’re more like your sisters. You definitely hate fighting with people that you love more than you hate going on dates.
- Disappointing your family. Thankfully, most of us manage to agree with our families the majority of the time. It really sucks when you end up disappointing your parents, and that definitely hurts more than yet another boring evening with a stranger.
- Depression or anxiety. If you’ve ever had a mental illness, you know that the struggle is just as hard (and often harder) than dealing with a physical malady. Going on a bad date might be stressful, but at least that suffering will be over as soon as you delete the guy’s number.
- Not believing in love. Losing your trust and faith that you’re going to find love someday is about a million times worse than being bored or even creeped out by another date. Jerks are temporary problems, so make sure you never let them destroy your faith in love as a whole.
- Having low self-confidence. If you don’t know your worth and aren’t going to value yourself, then that’s way worse than spending time with someone you don’t really like. You’ve probably heard that the most important relationship in your life is the one you have with yourself, and that’s one cliche that definitely rings true. Start thinking about yourself in a more positive light and you just might find that you can handle anything… even a guy who chews with his mouth open.