"Life is full of bullcrap fine lines" is a phrase my friends hear quite often. Well, something similar to that, at least. One of the most frustrating things in life to me is all the fine lines it has. Fine lines in relationships are my most hated of all. I don't have the answer to all of these fine lines, but I do have an ounce of insight on them after experiencing them for so long.

1. The fine line between flirting and being a creep.

"Oh my gosh, this random guy opened the door for me at Java Jolt and told me I was beautiful!!! How sweet is that!!!"

"Oh my gosh, this random guy opened the door for me at Java Jolt and told me I was beautiful!!! What the actual hell?!!? What a creep! I know I'm beautiful. I don't need him to tell me that!!"

From my observations, it's less about what you do and more if they think you're cute or not. I'm not saying that there aren't creeps out there, just that for the most part it's how the girl perceives the guy. Tone and body language also play into this a lot. This is not a blessing for people like me. When I say people like me, I mean people that see a pretty girl and their vocabulary diminishes to "hey" in an awkward bashful manner.

2. The fine line between communicating and C0mMun1c@ting.

So, we live in a world now where most relationships spark from our phones! But even this form of communicating changes ever so fast. It used to be you texted. Then, there was a step added called: "The Facebook message", then you texted. Then it thankfully moved on to Twitter then texting. I'm still a little confused on how IG flirting works, but it's a thing! Now there's a leader in "first-communication flirting": the one, the only, Snapchat. I'm 22 and try to flirt by sending pictures I take of myself with words typed over it... #mature.

• The Facebook Message: This was a low point in our lives, and I really don't think it takes much explaining. Please let the past be the past.
• Twitter Flirting: It starts with an innocent favorite...or is it truly innocent...I didn't really care for that quote from "Pretty Woman," but, I think she's a pretty woman so I'll favorite it anyways. So, we start to favorite most if not all of her tweets, depending on how much she tweets. "Favoriting" is the twitter equivalent of us opening the door for her at Java Jolt. Now we wait for her response. Will she think our gesture was sweet or creepy? We're in. She just favorited one of my tweets! Now we're in the favoriting-flirting stage. I favorite a tweet she tweeted four days ago, she favorites my tweet from five days ago. This is a form of flirting for people in their 20s. Then, from there, you have to use your imagination. Are you going for the infamous DM or are you going to swap to Snapchat? The possibilities are endless.
• Instagram Flirting: Very similar to Twitter flirting. I like your pics, you like my pics... and so on.
• Snapchat Flirting: We sit at a red light trying to get the perfect selfie. Need I say more? (Refer to beautiful pic above.)

The problem with all these forms of flirting is I'm not getting to know you! And a huge downfall of using these forms of flirting is that my sense of humor doesn't translate over them very well if you don't know me. (That's probably just something not funny people say, AKA me). But there is a huge positive to this form of flirting: I get to stay in bed, run my responses by my roommates before sending them, screenshot your responses to my friends, and the worst thing that can happen is that you don't respond, although that's pretty bad, to be honest! But all of those "positives" tend to turn into negatives. Instead of two people getting to know each other, eight or more people are getting to know each other. My roommates are helping me craft every text like it’s an art, and all of my texts are getting screenshotted and sent to a group message of girls. I’m not saying I’m going to get rid of aforementioned social platforms or anything crazy like that, but I do hope to strive to keep the IG flirting and screenshotting madness to a minimum. I hope to be straightforward and flirt like a real man… AKA giggle like a school girl at all of your jokes and awkwardly tell you your hair is pretty.

3.The fine line between chasing and repeatedly tripping.

I easily confuse the two on most occasions. I was taught that to properly pursue a girl I had to earn her time and affection. I agree with this completely, I just wasn’t taught the difference between chasing and repeatedly tripping. There comes a time where you have to value yourself enough to stop chasing after someone. There could be many reasons you need to stop chasing after someone. First of all, the point of a chase is to catch up with someone and walk with them side by side. A healthy relationship cannot be one long chase. If you are losing who you are in the process of chasing after this person, stop! If you are neglecting people that you love and care about in this chase, stop! If you are constantly making excuses for the person you’re chasing, stop! If the one being chased doesn’t want to be “caught,” stop! If the person being chased keeps throwing you cookies but continues to run, stop! A relationship is about eating cookies together, not having them thrown at you to keep you interested just a little while longer.

4.) The fine line between being forgiving Fred and idiotic Ivan

Forgiveness is weird. Forgiveness is the opposite of human nature, but so is love. To put someone else before you is not human nature in any way. I’m all about some forgiveness, but not all about belittling who you are as a person. I’m not saying don’t forgive somebody, but I am saying sometimes you need to forgive them and then promptly get the hell out! No one is perfect No one but me is perfect, so don’t put outrageous standards on people. But don’t leave a person standard-free either. I’m 22 and have never cheated, it’s doable. I’m not saying you can’t/shouldn’t forgive someone for cheating. I’m just saying be smart in your decision of when you should stay with a certain person or leave.

When it comes down to it, life is confusing, complicating, difficult, and down right dirty sometimes. But don’t forget how beautiful, rewarding, sometimes simple (for five seconds), and down-right awesome life can be. Relationships are a huge part of our lives, platonic and non-platonic. Just value yourself, and make others rise to your standards. Don’t lower to their standards (glad I sound like a 43-year-old Facebook mom). Love without end, forgive without end, but limit chances when they need limiting. Smile at somebody today and not just on Snapchat!