So, you’re thinking about dating? Here’s my top ten list on why you should date at a young age:

10. You have a good excuse to get out of family gatherings.
9. You're looking for a place to spend all your cash.
8. Because if you screw it up, you have a lot of time to still find someone to marry.
7. Because bro’s before… doesn’t apply to you.
6. She’s a cheerleader.
5. Cuz who wants to do homework anyway?
4. She won’t really mind your mullet (at least she didn’t mind mine).
3. If you break up and only are apart for 2 weeks, it didn’t count.
2. So you can pass notes between class periods.
1. So you can have hundreds of movies you rented but never really watched.

Sadly, some of those are true about my high school relationships (I’ll let you guess which ones). But really though, I’d like to tell you a little bit of my story if that’s cool.

Jess and I began dating sophomore year after flirting most of freshman year in biology class. Like a lot of couples, we started spending a lot of time together. It was all innocent at first and we were truly just having fun spending time with each other. We’d go for walks and talk on the phone till ridiculous hours of the night, or until one of us fell asleep.

However, after a little while, things got more intense. I found myself pulling away from my friends just so I could spend time with her. At the same time, we began to get more physical in our relationship. This caused us to become really connected, really fast.

With things moving so fast, Jess became jealous any time I even said hello to another girl in the hall. I only spent time with her, even before, during and after school.

We said that we loved each other (Even though I really had no idea what love was). Jess and I dated for almost 2.5 years (not including the breakups that didn’t really count since they were
under 2 weeks) :)

Finally, we broke up my senior year after she cheated on me during spring break. My heart was broken in a big way. She had definitely betrayed my trust. However, I think the biggest problem was that I had gotten so much of my identity from her and our relationship, that I didn’t really know who I was once it was gone.

Here’s the deal, dating in high school isn’t wrong. However, I’m also not sure if it’s the best. As you decide if you will date in high school, I would ask that you ask the following questions of yourself:

1. Why am I dating in the first place? (and what is the point of dating at this age?)
2. Do I really know myself well enough before trying to get to know someone else at that level?
3. What type of person is really worth spending that much time with? Truthfully, there are a lot of crappy people out there you COULD date…please don’t!

We care a ton about you guys and want the absolute best for you…if you have questions you don’t feel comfortable asking anyone else about dating…we’re here for ya!

-Mike Paull