You have the chills, your throat feels tight, your stomach is in knots and you can hear your heartbeat in your ears. No, you aren’t coming down with the flu, you have simply caught the feels. For those of you who aren’t down with the lingo of today's youths, catching feels is synonymous to having a crush or having feelings for someone you really shouldn’t be having feelings for. There are many reasons why you shouldn’t have feelings for these people-they can be your best buddy, your casual “hookup” or they can just be a total jerk. The heart wants what the heart wants and all I have to say is that catching feels can really suck.

In the “hookup” culture that is so prevalent in our generation, people usually affiliate catching feels with someone catching feelings for someone they are hooking up with. Having been in college for over a year now, I can confidently confirm that is usually the case. If I had a dollar for every time one of my friends caught feels for their hookup buddy, I would have about $5 (OK I guess that is not very much but you get the picture) What is unfortunate about this is that usually the feelings are one sided and it results in the “relationship” not ending amicably. Honestly, why are people surprised? Apart from the movie “No Strings Attached” has anyone heard of a friends with a benefits relationship ending in happily ever after? STD’s aren’t the only thing you should be afraid of contracting in these types of relationships; Sexually transmitted feelings, or STF’s, are far more common and just as hard to get rid of.

Friend-zone: A phrase we all know too well. Movies will have you believe the friend-zone is reserved for sweet but shy guys who are in love with their beautiful best friends. Pop culture fails to acknowledge that there are just as many girls with large personalities (and possibly some alcoholic tendencies) as shy boys in the friend-zone. Catching feels for someone who can only see you as a friend is the worst feeling in the world. To make things worse, they often confide in you for dating advice. Ultimately you want them to be happy so you reluctantly give it to them but there is a part of you that wants to sabotage things and give bad advice. “You should definitely just never ever talk to her again, you know, play hard to get.” Then comes the moment you feared the most; when you see them with another girl. Your heart drops and all you want to do is run away, but you refrain because you don’t want to look like a total crazy person. So you put on a smile, introduce yourself to her and try to act normal even though all you want to do is punch them in the face.

At the time these feels seem like the worst thing in the world but it gets better. Time passes, feelings fade and you meet new people. My advice to you is to get out there; open your heart, try new things, accept that you are going to get hurt and most importantly, practice safe feels, because STF’s are real.