"First time I met her was in the dining hall. I saw one of my boys. She just started to me and I was going to ask her for her number but she was with my friend and I didn't want to be disrespectful.

I was with my boys. We were looking for things to do, just chillen playing music. One of my boys knew this girl who had playing cards so we were all chillen at the apartment. The whole time me and her were having a conversation and stuff. We kept talking nonstop.

Eventually, we talked til about 9-10 in the morning and I'm not that talkative, I keep to myself. We continually talked and I would see her every day.

After a week or two, I opened up to her and told her stuff I haven't told anyone else and she did the same in return.

I basically moved in with her. My friends never saw me. I was always with her so much to the point where we started talking. I was hanging out with my friends one day but I kept thinking I just really wanna be with my girl so I left early to just chill with her.

For the summer, I've never done distance and distance was a b****. Don't get me wrong, it was very good for a while but with distance, there's a lot more work that's required. I know on my part there was little small stuff that I wasn't paying attention to.

One day we had a conversation and she told me that she didn't feel like I was all there or paying attention. It was probably the greatest time but the worst time at the same so we decided to take a step back to get to know each other more as friends.

She was already nervous about the relationship at first because of her belief in God. It made her nervous because until the year before I had a lukewarm relationship when it came to God. Initially, I didn't understand why she was nervous at first but now I get it."

-22, Single

"We were really good friends at first. We had classes together. I first got to know her through her friend and through her friend I realized we had the same class so we started talking. Nothing extravagant or romantic.

Sometimes she would start acting weird like grabbing my s*** or taking my s***. One time she grabbed my keys and ran all the way to my dorm, used my fob, and ran to my room. I was actually mad because I was trying to go somewhere and she just ran through my room. I was really upset with her. I left and she left a whole voicemail apologizing. That's excessive so I figured.

One time my family wasn't doing so well health wise so I was feeling down and said I was just going to sleep it off and I was about to go and she was like "no no no just come" and then I went with her to her room.

Then that became a common thing and one day she just told me she really liked me and one day she wanted to tell me something but was kinda scared and I figured it out and we started dating.

She was a best friend at first because that's what we were before. She really knew me. We were good for some time until she started annoying me. She started asking for too much and doing too much. I felt like her love was materialistic and while I didn't have a problem with that, it just got tiring/draining. If I added up how much stuff I bought for her it would be too much. I bought her a lot of clothes and shoes and spent a lot of money on her.

Idk why I assumed the role as a provider. We got a whole dog together and treated it like it was our kid. I took notes for her in class. She would be sleep and I would be up studying for her for the test we had the next day. The energy I put in wasn't reciprocated. I was in over my head. She was making me something I didn't want to be.

We broke up several times but I finally finalized it one day.

My advice would be don't be pressed for love. You literally have your own life to better yourself, to go get your goals because once you start loving, you don't lose yourself but you can lose opportunities. You should never be too pressed for finding somebody. You should be able to be on your own and self-sufficient and when you do like somebody please be your own person. Don't lose yourself. Have your own goals. Do things for yourself and she can do the same."

-22, Single

"I was in high school. I met her in middle school and we had a crush on each other. I moved away and then I came back to North Carolina. We ended up going to the same high school and then we started talking and then we started dating and I really loved that girl.

She took my virginity so I was always down for her. About 6 months into the relationship, mind you my close friends and family members told me that she wasn't the one for me because she was cheating on me, but I was being naive about it saying "I don't believe it til I see it".

So I was spending money on her and taking her out everywhere and taking her to prom. She was the first girl I took to prom and come to find out she cheated on me with my own cousin. She f***** like four basketball players on the same team I'm on.

She was cheating on me the whole year I was dating her and I was close with that cousin and I was cool with the basketball players she cheated on me with. This is my first love so of course I was hurt as f*** and even after I found all that out we broke up and I told her I still wanted to give her another chance because I was just that in love with her and that didn't end up working out. She moved away.

The advice I would give other people is know who you're dating and understand what their motives are. Make sure that it's best for you."

-22, Single

"I met her at school, in high school. We were crushing on each other but would never say anything. I was kind of shy then.

I finally went up to her and asked her about going to the dance and stuff. First, she said no and then she got her friend to come to tell me yeah. I ended up taking her and after that night she felt like I wasn't like other guys.

So we started talking and our first date I took her out to eat and we started getting close. She told me she lost both her parents so we live with her grandma and her aunt. So I'm very encouraged because my mom was like that. I would always encourage her as a friend.

She would hit me up through the night and one time she said she wanted to kill her self or hurt herself so I made her way over there to stop her from doing it and talk her down and I guess me talking to her a lot motivated her to be a stronger person.

We never really got into an argument. We got into one argument and I was like man look at us arguing over something stupid.

Her aunt got a job so they had to move. She was going to stay down here with her grandma and said to me if you want me to stay I'll stay and I kept saying what's better for you which was going with her aunt because her grandma could only do but so much.

I figured it was going to happen and I kind of distanced myself and I kept encouraging her to go with her aunt because she would have more opportunities if she went with her. At the end of the summer, my girlfriend, her aunt, her grandma, my mother, and I, we all had a big goodbye dinner.

I would rather her have a better opportunity than stay and struggle.

My advice would be that if you love someone then you would tell them what to do what's best for them. I felt like what if she stays down here and we don't make it?"

-22, Single

"She was my best friend since 7th grade. We hung out a lot and spent a lot of time together and towards my sophomore year in high school, we started getting closer.

She and I were really good friends and liked her a lot, but I was hesitant to ask her out because I was afraid the relationship would ruin the friendship we had. I honestly just wanted to be friends even without benefits because at that time because I just wasn't ready to be at that point with her yet. I wanted to spend more time with her in a romantic capacity seeing we always did things platonically.

She kept urging "our friends think we would be really good together!" and I said ok, If I love her as much as I feel I do, then I should take this on with her and move onto the next chapter.

We were together for a year. I would always be at her house spending time with her family and siblings. I used to take her on dates all the time. It was a good, healthy relationship. For a long time, I felt happy that I did the relationship route but there was a little bit of fear in the back of my mind. I hoped this wouldn't go bad because we couldn't go back to being friends after being so deep in this.

About 8-9 months in, problems came up with her family and she was diagnosed with severe depression. That was a journey for us to manage how she dealt with her emotions and how it affected her inside. I still loved her but there was a lot going on because she would take things out on me even if she didn't really feel that way towards me.

When prom came it got really bad. I noticed a shift in her not enjoying talking with me and getting upset because just because I called her. She didn't want to spend time with me. Her depression literally turned her against me where she couldn't enjoy our bond anymore. I did everything I possibly could. I was there for her and tried to listen to her and give her advice if she needed someone with her just to breathe. I would help her out around the house. I did everything I could and everything was still going left.

My mom spent all this money for us to go to prom with this chauffeur and a car and she had a really pretty dress. Despite how nice everything was, she really didn't enjoy prom at all. The whole prom felt awkward. She wouldn't look me in the face when we were dancing together. She didn't really seem happy and the smile she did put on was just a mask.

I spent the night with her. The next day she sounded very monotone and irritated on the phone. This hit a break in my nerves. I told her I wasn't sure why she was acting this way but to let me know

when she wanted to talk without the attitude. Later that day we spoke and I decided it was best for us to separate because we just weren't doing each other any good.

She eventually said she wanted to be friends again so I said we can meet up and discuss it. She revealed that I didn't do anything for her to feel that way and she was just in a bad place. I decided to move on without her anyways."

-21, Taken

"We played basketball in 6th-7th grade. Everybody pretty much knew each other where I lived. Me and my girlfriend, she went to another school. The way I met her was on 3 way with some of my friends and I didn't know her like that so we all exchanged numbers. We ended up liking each other. I found out she played basketball (she was varsity her freshmen year and I didn't play til my second year).

We dated from 8th grade to my freshmen year of college. We were on and off. The only reason I considered her as my first love because she actually understood who I was. She actually took an opportunity to understand who I was and we had so much in common that there was never a dull moment.

The way the situation turned, even though we had been through so much, is because when you go to college coming from a small area it's a whole new experience. The caliber of females change, you're exposed to new situations that you weren't exposed to back home.

She went on to college and played basketball there and I did too but she was D1 but she was traveling a lot more than I was. Our schedules around school and other auxiliary orgs that we were in made it impossible for us to be on the same page. We tried and tried but eventually, we broke up and told each other it wasn't working and we were attracted to other people but we understood each other and were mature about it.

We tried it again my junior year and it came to a point where we grew apart.

My advice is that a lot of people want to hang on to what WAS instead of what IS and you can kill the friendship like that. If you feel yourself being in a relationship with a person that you been with and it doesn't feel the same and you trying and trying and nothing changes then just move on because you don't want to destroy what you have with them and lose them at the same time. If you really care about someone you gotta let them go and prosper."

-27, Taken