Rule 8: Don't Go Steady in High School

1.  I got into the playoffs again in NHL 11, and I swept Phoenix in the first. 
2.  I did partner Yoga yesterday for the first time and lifted a football player with my legs.
3.  My wife accidentally spilled water on my lap top, but after it dried out some, it still worked.

Today's post won't be popular, and I understand that.  I know this because I remember me in high school.  I remember buying into the 'liking one person' phenomenon.  I remember looking at my parents and noticing how happy they were just to have each other. I also remember thinking that I was very mature for my age, and was ready to be in a serious relationship.  I remember my dad telling me that having a girlfriend was a bad idea in high school, and just like with the quick date idea, I thought that my dad was an idiot.

It all went down my junior year.  I made the ballroom team, along with the hockey team, and was in the middle of juggling both.  Most of my friends were either on the hockey team or ran with hockey players, so I didn't really have many friends on ballroom to start with, and I mostly kept to myself.  In one of the dances (I think the two step routine), I got paired with the ballroom captain.  She was cute, and there were enough breaks for me to joke around with her and eventually drive her home, and end up holding hands with her on her mom's couch.  It was pretty cool.  What followed can be observed on Bambi, we both got butterflies, and our eyes got large and glassy.  And soon, we became inseparable. 

So inseparable in fact, that my friends remember it as the year that I disappeared.  What can I say?  They were out chasing girls, and I had a girlfriend.  We really weren't up to the same things.  I saw my hockey buddies at practice, but that was about it.  The rest of my time was spent with my girlfriend.

She was a year older, so that summer we broke up.  She went off to college and I started my senior year.  I rarely dated that year, and found no other girlfriend.  I dated the girl my junior year for nine months.  To be honest, it was nine months of making out and arguing.  That's really all we did.  And, the other girls at the high school who were interested in me had noticed us, and never asked if we were still together.  Because we had been inseparable, I assume that people assumed that we were still together, and because I'm an introvert, I didn't talk enough to let them know otherwise.

Now, I do need to say that the girl I dated really is a wonderful person.  She is very sweet, and very kind.  To be honest, I didn't deserve to be with her.  I was kind of a jerk through a lot of the relationship (not as mature as I thought).  The bottom line though, and again, I don't expect this to be a popular opinion, is to date a lot of people in high school, and don't 'go steady.' I know that your mature, more mature than I was.  I know you've thought this through, and it seems like the right idea.  But please, just take it from me, and don't go steady in high school.

Have a nice day.