“Is he creepy…or are you just not interested?”

I remember that question so well because the girl I asked looked like a deer in the headlights. She just wasn’t interested, and no one was truly upset about that. Sometimes, you just aren’t. The only thing I asked of her after this was to just tell the guy how she felt. 

With the addition of so many networks, mediums, and the decline of the formerly popular methods- it seems as though the world of communication is changing drastically, and the scale is widening as to what forms ‘normal’ ways to interact.

Do I text? Do I call? Should I like that photo so quickly? Did I follow him too soon? Why did she friend request me? What did he mean by come over and watch a movie? What the klout is path and why did someone give it to me?

In the instances of dating, communication is probably the most complicated it has ever been. I don’t have planned a list of “best practices” nor much of a goal with this blog other than to say…communicate directly and honestly. It’s the least that we owe each other, because regardless of our intentions or efforts, at some point, it hurts. It hurts a lot. It hurts because we care, because we put our minds and our hearts on the line for something that in retrospect may seem small, but in the same way that small victories win wars, small defeats crush confidence.

But if you communicate clearly, it hurts less. It hurts less when you hear it from the source than through someone else. It hurts less to know a clear answer than to be left wondering. It hurts less to hear a voice than to read letters on a small screen. It hurts less to be asked permission that to be owed forgiveness.

It’ll still hurt sometimes. You’ll still feel it, and you’ll still cause it - but because neither of us like feeling the hurt, can we just agree to try? If we fail, we fail, but right now, I just want to hurt less, inside and out.