For the girl who has never dated - Part 1

​Before college started, my love life was... nonexistent. Like, literally never existed. I had never dated anyone before or even gotten anywhere close to it. I loved watching and reading love stories and dreaming about one day meeting the man God has for me. I pictured our love story so many different ways, but honestly it just seemed like a fantasy in my head that would never come true. It seemed so preposterous that anyone could like, let alone love, me romantically. I couldn’t fathom the idea of me and someone else falling in love. It sounded like a fairy tale. 

But God knew what was coming. 

Entering college was an interesting experience. Being at a Christian college, everyone is a little crazy at first. So many godly men and women all together, it’s any single Christian’s dream! So many of my friends were looking out for all the cute guys. But coming from the success I had in relationships in the past, I wasn’t really too crazy about meeting anyone. The thought of any guy liking me still seemed impossible. I figured I would eventually meet the guy that God has for me, maybe towards the end of college or the beginning of my career. But for now, dating still seemed like a dream, and so while my friends were obsessing over boys, I just listened to them and helped them out. I barely even talked to any guys that first week of orientation. Just stuck to what I was comfortable with, me and the girls. 

I even remember the first conversation I had with a guy that week. It wasn’t even on my own, it was literally a forced conversation. I was in one of my orientation seminars about networking, and we had to find someone near us to have a converstion with.  The first one I talked to was my friend next to me. We chatted carelessly and didn’t take it seriously. But then we had to do it again. And this time, I didn’t have another friend near me. I frantically looked around to see everyone pairing up, and started getting stressed when I realized I would have no one to pair up with. Until everyone around me but one person was left. And just my luck, it was a boy. After sharing names and majors, we quickly ran out of things to say. I tried not to be too awkward, but let’s be real here, there was a reason no one dated me for 18 years. I literally ended up talking about the weather. Yes, seriously, the WEATHER. How awkward could I be? After totally humiliating myself in that conversation, I quickly turned back to the front and moved on from that embarrassing moment. I decided to block out that conversation in my head. 

That was exactly why I avoided boys. 

The first few weeks was a blur of new classes and people. I started to form a friend group, and we grew close really quickly. I even wanted to come back from fall break early, just to hang out with them. The weekend that I came back, right before classes started back up again, my friends and I decided to carve pumpkins. This was a big deal for me considering I had never carved a pumpkin before, so this was a pretty exciting night for me. I am kind of an artsy person, so my pumpkin turned out... not horrible. I guess it was somewhat cute, having a cat face on it, but definitely not a masterpiece or anything. Well, by the end of the carving, I began to need to use the bathroom. But since my friend and I were about to go back to my room, I figured I would just use it there.

On the way back, however, some of my friends got sidetracked in a conversation with someone in the hallway. I had noticed another friend in someone's dorm while we were walking down the hallway, so I slipped out of the hallway to say hi to my friend in the dorm. Pretty bold for me considering I just walked into some random guy's dorm, even though the door was propped open. There were two guys in the room along with my one friend. The one guy I somewhat knew from mutual friends, but the other I didn't recognize. They were both super friendly and allowed me to chill in their room as I waited for my friends in the hallway.

By this time I really had to use the bathroom, but I felt super awkward asking these guys to use their bathroom, so I tried to hold it in. Well, that plan proved more difficult than I thought. The guy in the dorm that I didn't recognize was hilarious. Like, pee-your-pants hilarious when you don't even need to use the bathroom. So imagine how I was doing! As the hallway conversation got longer and longer, and this guy got funnier and funnier, I finally couldn't hold it any longer and pushed myself to ask to use their bathroom.  Phew, what a relief, now I could laugh with joy instead of pain. 

On top of the constant jokes, this new guy also seemed to think my pumpkin was amazing. Like, a masterpiece he wanted to buy or something. He constantly complimented me on it, and while I found it kind of strange, I just assumed he was trying to encourage me or be nice since it was my first carved pumpkin. After almost two hours of getting an ab workout from laughter, it was finally time for us girls to leave the guys dorm building for "curfew." As I left with my friend from the room, she insisted that the funny guy, whose name I learned was Nate, was flirting with me. But me being the naive person I am about these things insisted that he was just being nice and blew it off as anything more. 

I think God was laughing, considering He knew that the "funny guy" would be my future husband. 

To be continued... 

​-Victoria