seekatedate

In February I turned the big Two-Five.
A whole quarter-century’s experience under my belt, I decided I should do something new this year to commemorate the event.

I deemed this year The Year Of Dating.

I know what you’re thinking. Katie, you’re 25.

Like a lot of my friends, I hit high school right around the time I Kissed Dating Goodbye hit the shelves.
It was an exciting discovery - dating was a scary thing for me, involving risk, vulnerability (my favorite four letter word), and *gasp* rejection. Coming from a broken family, I had my fair share of relationship, commitment and vulnerability issues and more. I self-righteously took up the cause of courtship like a suit of armor, using the excuse “Oh, it’s okay if he doesn’t like me. I’m waiting to date my mate.” Obviously any guy who didn’t think I was hot in high school (trust me I could’ve used some fashion and hair help) was just obviously not husband material.

I encountered even more issues in attending a small Christian college in central Florida. Marriage was served up on a silver platter, and everyone had to get their “ring by Spring or your money back.” Well let me tell you folks, I never got any of my money back and my fingers are still bare, thank God. Any time I hung out with a guy friend one on one, I got the slew of questions from my friends, people I didn’t know, the lunch lady in the cafeteria : “Are you two talking?” “How long have you two been together?” “When’s the wedding?” “How’s your 3rd child?” You get my point.

Trust me, you can get into plenty of trouble without actually having gone on a date. Pseudodating. It’s what I call it when I am out with a guy, alone, and there is obviously something going on but he never has the guts to say anything. It’s being in a relationship without being in a relationship. You hang out, make googly eyes at eachother, awkwardly brush hands (or even come 2 inches from kissing), and flirt without ever knowing “what his intentions are”. Pseudodating is frustrating stuff! My usual cycle until now was to hang out with a guy like this off/on for awhile, give up finally on any chance and become just friends with him, and then suddenly after about two or so years, he comes up with a line like “oh but I totally liked you then”, or “I’ve liked you for two years now” (only when I am halfway across the country, moving to California).

In October of 2006, I graduated and moved out to L.A. Since then, I have really found myself here. I am living my dreams one by one, and I am having the time of my life!

So there I was…25 years old and I had never been on a proper date. Oh I had gone out with boys, I just never had anyone actually ask me “Would you like to go on a date with me?” The magic words had never been spoken in my direction.
But recently, I read “The Book” (ask me if you don’t know which one I am talking about), and I am ready to go.

This is The Year Of Dating!

And I want you along for the ride. People always tell me I should write more, so I thought, what more interesting subject to write about?

My hope is that this will be beneficial not only to me, as some sort of processing and catharsis, but also to you as something to learn from. Follow me through my successes and failures, my hot dates and my duds, and every confusing and awkward situation in between.

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

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