College is a world of “things” that evolves from one night stands. You meet under the dim romantic lights in a fraternity party basement and bond over a disgust for keg Natty, but Bud Light is cool. Throw in a comment about the election and that Closer is so overrated (which, by the way, is so false), down a couple beers, and you’re suddenly leaving the party, hand in hand with a perfect stranger, who you also just made out with. In front of the entire party. It's okay, only 3 people got it on Snapchat.
You wake up the next morning with a stale taste of beer in the air and-gasp- a stranger in your bed. Damage control goes along the lines of, “Hey, I hate to do this, but I have class in an hour.", usher him out of the room, give him your number ou oft habit -or pity- and you're in the clear. Or so you think.
Defending your actions from the night before as “It was just a one time thing!” to your friends at breakfast in the mornings quickly turns into “Oh my god the guy from last night texted me, do I answer?” at 2 PM that afternoon. And when you answer, that turns into a “He’s coming over, we’re just hanging out”. And so it begins.
A couple Netflix and Chills later and he’s a permanent fixture to your weekend nights. “Is your guy coming over tonight?” your roommates ask, already knowing full well that you’ll drunkenly stumble into your apartment at around 2 A.M laughing and splitting a cheesy bread. And you begin to notice, you sleep a little better when he’s around, you smile bigger, you are more alive.
And here it comes- the F word- feelings. They happen, sooner or later, whether it’s from the moment you lock eyes in a beer line or a month later when he pays for your pizza with his meal plan money. And they hit you like the bus that killed Regina George. “Wow, I really like this person”, what a frightening concept.
“So like, what are you guys?” the question that’s on your friends’ mind that inevitably comes up sooner or later. And, if truth be told, it’s a question you don’t know the answer to. “Do you like him?” almost always follows. “We’re just hanging out.” you reply, because what else could you say?
In middle school, “Awkward” introduced DTR as something all couples, or at least couple-like individuals should do, six years later and it’s still as awkward as it was for Jenna and Matty on MTV. And what helps in awkward, difficult situations? Alcohol, and the weekend. “What are we?” your speech is a little high-pitched and your words slur together, but that is a question no one can mistake. And so, the downfall of all things begin. Because, as Awkward, One Tree Hill, and every other coming of age TV show of this milennium have taught us, there’s always someone who cares more and someone who cares less; and at some point it became cooler to be the one who cared less.
“The best way to never get your heartbroken is to pretend you don’t have one”, a.k.a the mantra of college boys across the country who are determined to stay un-cuffed for their 4 years of higher education. I don’t know why anyone would ever take relationship advice from Charlie Sheen, but then again, I really don’t understand the way guys’ minds work in the first place. I barely know how my own mind works, but here’s what I do know.
There is a commitment stigma in the college culture. Millennials are known as being sensitive snowflakes who have a reaction to EVERYTHING, but when it comes to relationships we would rather be numb than any kind of feeling toward another person. Because feelings make things real. And if things become relationships, and that relationship ends…. That’s just too much to feel.
