10 Tips For Dating After College
Dating after college is an interesting life to live, they say you meet your spouse in college, and if you’re a sad sap like me, you did no such thing.
Instead, you delved into debauchery and drunkenly fueled hookups that left you feeling satisfied, yet empty.
1. Don’t Go Ghost
Dating after college can be stressful enough, let alone meeting someone, only to have them vanish after one decent date. Just don’t do it. Not only is it mad lame, but people deserve closure.
The last thing you want is someone blowing up your phone, angry and confused as to why you never texted them back. Rejecting someone is incredibly easy, all you have to say is, “I’m not interested.”
That’s it! Quick, and painless. Don’t be like Danny Phantom and go ghost. Please, you’ll be a better person in doing so.
2. Use Dating Apps
Tinder, Bumble, Hinge are all essential for dating after college. Particularly if you’re starting fresh in a city where you know absolutely no one.
Dating apps can be intimidating at first, especially if you’re a woman. As a guy, I can tell you that you’re going to run across a shit ton of creepy bastards.
However, that’s the best thing about dating apps: you can be straight up about what you’re looking for. Whether you just want friends or friends with benefits, it doesn’t matter as long as you let your intentions be known from the jump.
3. Be Honest
The best thing you can do is be honest with the person you’re dating. I know this may seem like a no-brainer, but trust me, it is lost on some people.
Honesty truly is the best policy. Don’t lie about your job, if it sucks, then say it fucking sucks. You’re still in your 20s and nobody has their shit together.
Hell, this gives you the chance to show your comedic side and stories to tell about why your job is the worst thing ever.
Not only that but if you’re fully transparent about what you want, then you’ll save yourself lots of trouble sifting through the scrubs. If your interests align you’ll know immediately.
4. Work On Yourself
So you just graduated and now you’re ready to start dating after college, but not so fast. You need to make yourself presentable. Dating can be expensive, so make you can afford it.
Unless you’re going to a cute little hole in the wall, the restaurants you’ll frequent are going to be fancy. Not only that, but you and your date will be seeing others.
Everyone has a top 5, and I don’t mean rappers, so you need to make yourself a standout from the rest. Buy some clothes that improve your sense of style, hit the gym, get a stylist. Whatever.
As long you feel like your best self, you’ll never fail to impress.
5. Do Things You Enjoy
If you’re still not ready to try new things, then the next best option is to do things you enjoy. I hate drinking with a passion, and because I live in Pittsburgh so the amount of interesting things to do is rather small.
Instead of saying something like, “Wanna get drinks?” how about, asking your date if they want to go to a concert. A movie is cool, but seeing a classic movie in the theater is even better.
The point is, find events that keep you relatively in your comfort zone for the first date. After that, is when you’ll expand the horizon.
6. Don’t Be Lame, Try New Things
If you want to make dating after college successful, you have to try new things. I don’t mean changing your diet or taking a different route to work. No, I mean you need to do things you normally wouldn’t do.
For example, take a weekend trip somewhere on a whim. Go to a concert that’s like 4 hours away, eat Thai food for the first time, if you see someone attractive then say hello.
Trying new things will increase your confidence and further increase your dating life.
7. Get Your Own Place
This depends on circumstances as living in expensive cities such as New York and LA can be incredibly expensive, so having a roommate is key.
Regardless, if you’re going to seriously date after college, then you need to at least have a spot where you pay the bills.
Even if it is a dump, nothing is more of a turn off than bringing a girl back home to your mother snoring. But hey, if you still live with them, don’t stress it.
There’s always single people out there no matter the age. Take your time and get your shit together.
8. Avoid Bars Like the Plague
To quote Michaels from Superbad, “You don’t wanna meet a chick at the bar, man.” Bars after college are just sesspools of sexually charged beings that want to have fun.
If you meet someone at a bar, then there’s a high possibility that you won’t end up in a relationship. Bars are fun because most people are single. You are trying to change that.
9. Don’t Limit Yourself
Once you begin dating after college, you’ve entered the realm of complete independence. So why on earth would you limit yourself? This is more of an abstract concept but really think about it.
Date someone who is the complete opposite of yourself, or who not your type. There are a plethora of people out there with vastly different opinions than your own.
Keeping an open mind just might change your life. Try it.
10. Embrace The Awkward
Lastly, you need to just embrace the awkwardness. Dating after college will be weird, annoying, but most of all awkward. You need to take these things as they come and embrace them.
Doing this will allow you to make light of any situation and broaden your mindset.
