Q Dear Miss Abigail:
I really haven’t had a boyfriend and my best friend gets a new one every time she breaks up with one. I was told it’s because I look like I beat guys up but I don’t. None of the guys like me. What do I do?
Signed,
Seeking Love
A Dear Seeking:
You would feel so much better if I told you my pitiful dating history, which in the early years was made up of just one “affair” with my best friend Donny in junior high. He bugged me after three days, however, and I had to end it abruptly. Luckily he forgave me and we remained friends. Not until after college did I begin to sort of date, and only recently have I started to really get the hang of it. And I’m in my thirties!
My point is, everyone feels the way you do at one point in their lives or another. Here’s a little reminder from the textbook Living for Young Moderns, written in 1956 by Irene E. McDermott and Florence Williams Nicholas.
1956: If You Don’t Date, Don’t Think You Are Different
Would it surprise you to know that most high school students do not date regularly? And that great numbers graduate without having had a single date? If you seldom date, or not at all, you are not different from the majority of your classmates. There is no need to feel that you are socially a failure if you do not date. This does not mean that you should not date or try to get dates if you want them. It means simply that there are lots of other boys and girls like yourself who do not date, either because they are not interested or because they do not know how to get dates. Remember that there are many years ahead after you graduate from high school.
Source: McDermott, Irene E. and Florence Nicholas. Living For Young Moderns. Chicago: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1956.
~ pp. 104-105 ~