Everyone argues that the dating scene in college is dead. Many have given up in the dating scene and said it doesn’t exist, but I beg to differ. We live in the 21st century where you can do basically everything from your phone in our fast paced environment. We can’t be blaming the guys in our generation for causing the end of dating; it’s not their fault. We are from the generation where everything is done online, including meeting people. We squeeze it between our busy lives, but it’s the way our generation is actually meeting people. Is that really the way you want to explain to your kids on how you met? Probably not, we are just settling by swiping left or right. We can’t just settle. The moment we settle, we are giving up being happy and looking for love.

Often, we will just settle for attention and affection, but you shouldn’t need to settle. You deserve to be happy and to find someone truly worthy of you, and don’t let anyone tell you anything else. You deserve the best, and the best is realizing dating in college isn’t dead. It’s only dead if you let it be.

You can find love in the most unexpected places, but if you stay looking at your phone and don’t look around you might end up regretting it. How do you think people met each other before our era of technology? People spoke to one another face-to-face, which seems like a crazy concept. We hide behind our phones and are afraid to have a real conversation about feelings. We’d rather let things continue on with no future, rather than speak up. And that is our fault completely, now is the time to take your own life and take control. Don’t just watch from the sidelines.

But once you step up and have those real conversations, dating is possible. It happens, there are chivalrous men around. They might be the ones who sit next to you in our big lecture class, the boy you met during summer orientation of you freshman year, or your friend’s roommate. Those are the ones you might not find on tinder swiping right, but the ones who will actually care for you and give you the world. You just might need to put down your phone and open up your eyes. Just know dating in college is dead if you let it be, so change what you’re doing.

And as Chuck Bass might say it, "If two people are meant together, they will find their way back."

You can find love in my past, present, and maybe your future.