With any formal dance or gathering comes the pressure of finding a decent date to help get you through a night of mingling with judgmental family and friends. You don't have to like them or find them attractive, they only need to be present as a formality. Unfortunately, finding a date often comes down to being set up with someone else who is desperate for a date or is just willing to help out a friend in need (aka, a blind date).
But hey, at least it's a date.
Sure, blind dates can leave you pondering why you even bothered to come to the event in the first place, but they may be more worthwhile than you think!
Now I'm not saying this because that one blind date you miss may have been the love of your life - because the chances of that happening are probably one in a million. I'm saying they're worthwhile because no matter how disastrous the date may be, you can learn a lot about yourself on a blind date - both in and outside of the dating world.
A few years ago, I found myself stranded on a kayak in the middle of Whalon Lake with my cousin's best friend who was looking for a date to his school dance. The sun was shining down and the slight breeze skimmed the water making it a perfect day for kayaking. Thinking my cousin was going to keep us company on our "date," I was a little taken aback when he left his friend and me to spend time alone on the water with no easy escape if necessary.
I'm usually a pretty tolerable person, but when your date tries to convert you to a different branch of Christianity... that's where I draw the line... By the time we paddled to the middle of the lake, I was seriously considering jumping out and swimming to the shore.
By far, probably the worst date I've ever had so far in my life. Don't get me wrong, this guy was very nice and I'm sure there's somebody out there for him, but that somebody is just not me. However, besides making for a good story later, I actually learned quite a bit from the experience.
Going into the date I had high hopes that maybe this guy and I would completely hit it off which made the whole thing a bigger disappointment in the end. My advice would be definitely don't get your hopes too high for the first date, but stay open minded.
When controversial topics arise or you flat out just don't want to talk about something, I also figured out how to direct the conversation to other places which was quite a challenge at the time, but helpful. On a first date, try to go somewhere where there are conversation starters, somewhere where your surroundings often change so that if things get boring you can suddenly point something out and start a new conversation.
Also, I highly suggest following the thumb rule of never talking about politics and religion on the first date. You want to see if someone is compatible on the first date and a debate isn't needed to figure that out. Stay away from that and go more for featuring your personality and who you are. But you especially don't want to pretend to be someone you're not, that will just lead to a horrible second date.
Although blind dates have a stigma for crashing and burning like mine, don't turn your nose at them. They may be an adventure that you can learn from and have a good laugh about in the future. Plus, maybe your blind date will be that one in a million that works out.
