Does dating life get better here than in high school

la_montagne
Sun, 03 Jan 2010 02:00:08 +0000

Yes, there’s definitely time for dating, but you kind of have to work for it. A friend of mine recently remarked to me on how common long-term relationships are here; people just don’t have time to deal with the drama of relationship problems, and somehow it just kind of keeps them at bay. However, both you and your potential girlfriend WILL be stressed and busy often, and you just have to find a system that works for you. I’ve been with my boyfriend basically since I arrived at MIT (I’m a sophomore now; he’s a year older), and what works for us is (and I know it sounds lame) psetting together. I do my homework in his room, and we tend to cook or get dinner together just about every night. On the weekends, we’ll try to go into Boston or to Harvard and either get a nice dinner or see a play or a movie or just walk around or window shop, but a lot of times we don’t even have the time or energy for that. Sometimes our “dates” just include ordering delivery and watching a movie in his room. “Romantic dinners,” though not common, are enjoyable and savored, and definitely last more than 5 minutes.

Really, though, relationships are something that don’t just appear. It takes some work, and definitely some time management, to balance them with the intense academics/extracurriculars. If you do get one to work, though, I can personally attest to the fact that it decreases your stress level dramatically. It’s really nice to have someone to rely on to make you feel better, take care of you when you’re sick, get you dinner when you think you have no time to eat, and just generally make sure that you don’t fall apart. And it’s really nice being able to do that for someone else, too (even though it can get extra stressful when they get swine flu mid-semester). :)