They say your teen years are when you experience the learning curve for dating. Your thirties are when you finally know the universal truths about it. Your twenties, however, were designed to test your knowledge about dating, so you can work out the kinks in preparation for your thirties.
That’s what makes it so hard to be a single twentysomething woman. You’re applying yourself armed with nothing but a basic knowledge of over-the-counter birth control.
Why do twentysomething women find it harder to date?
Before you were old enough to order alcohol without a fake ID, your worries about dating were limited to who you were going to prom with or who you were going to be paired up with after Rush Week. When you finally hit twenty, you don’t have the luxury of annual dances and campus-sanctioned parties to help you find a date. You have to actually look for someone to date now.
It’s not your fault that there are so many lessons to learn during your twenties. Aside from a basic understanding of the female orgasm, you are also saddled with the pressures of knowing how to achieve said orgasm with another human being.
That’s what twentysomething dating is all about. Going out there and experiencing life, while worrying about your job, your rent, your student loans, and who you’re going to sleep with for the rest of your life.
What are the most common dating problems of twentysomething women?
Already thinking that dating in your twenties is daunting enough? You have no idea…
#1 Having a roommate. Dating while you’re living with someone else can be hard, especially if your walls are as thin as paper. Your roommate is exposed to the good and bad parts of your relationship, as well as your overly zealous s*x life.
#2 Thinking of socially acceptable reasons why you’re not married. Everyone you know keeps asking when, why, and who. You don’t have an answer that will satisfy them, so you end up making one up.
#3 Wondering when you should mention marriage when you’re dating. You are in your twenties. If you’re planning on getting married someday, this is the time to lock it down. But how do you do that when most men are ten years late in the commitment phase?
#4 Dating someone younger seems like a step down. That 18-year-old seems pretty hot in theory, but the fact that they haven’t actually lived through their twenties says a lot about how they’re going to handle your relationship emotionally.
#5 Considering whether or not you’re old enough to date an older man without being judged. If you date a man that’s older than thirty, there are going to be some raised eyebrows. But there comes a point when you finally have something sensible to say about wanting to date someone more mature. We said mature, not geriatric.
#6 Choosing between dating to settle down and finding yourself in another country. Ah, the freedom of being single and in your twenties. When you find the love of your life, however, you will be forced to choose between compromise and continuing to be a free spirit.
#7 Deciding on which type of birth control you want to use until you hit menopause. Birth control is a tricky subject, especially with all the studies that put it in a negative light. It’s also very taxing considering the research and testing you have to put in. Which one won’t make you bloat? Which one will make you break out? Oh, the worrisome possibilities.
#8 Having too much time to stalk, but not enough time to get a promotion. Being a twentysomething means that you have access to all the new apps and still have all the old ones as well. This makes you susceptible to social media binging on your past dates’ profiles, which gives you less time to work on your career.
#9 Realizing that being attractive enough for the general population takes work. You’re literally not getting any younger. You’re either holding on to that 21-year-old faà§ade or trying your best to get back that ethereal 25-year-old face using any product you can get your hands on.
#10 And that it’s also very expensive. And even that won’t cut it because you have to shell out for the good stuff, if you really want to keep looking as good as you do now.
#11 Happy couples can make you depressed, angry, or happy – depending on the success of your latest date. Your reaction to your dating situation is inversely proportional to other people’s love lives, ergo, if they’re happy, you’re sad. If they’re sad, you’re happy.
#12 Being old enough to have a baby either scares you to death or scares you enough to find someone to make a baby with. Women really do get baby-crazy. When this happens, there is no stopping them from ruining their dates with talks of babies or ruining their friendships with expressions of disgust for babies.
#13 You find yourself wondering if you’re too young to be tied down or too old to not have settled down yet. This existential problem is what makes twentysomething women seem crazy. They have no idea what they want, but society keeps pushing them to decide on what they should do after their last cup of coffee.
#14 Having slept with enough people that you fear running into them anywhere. It’s a reasonable fear, considering that seeing a person you slept with causes all sorts of discomfort including, but not limited to, shock, disgust, longing, depression, elation, and regret.
#15 Calculating how many men you’re going to shave off your actual number. If you are a twentysomething woman with an active Tinder profile, you’re probably listing them all down in your Notes app. Apart from that, you may or may not be marking the ones you’re going to admit to sleeping with.
