First Date Freakout

If you’re calm before a first date, please let me know your secret because I become a mess of anxiety and nerves.

Most people freak out. It has to do with a variety of things. You’re meeting up with someone in a new way. If you knew them before, you’re taking it to another level. If you’ve never met, you’re meeting a stranger for the first time and there are a lot of expectations involved.

All you can do is try to keep calm. You can do what I do and text your best friend a thousand times with a hundred scenarios of how the date could go wrong. Keep calm and keep positive. In most cases, you know what you’re getting yourself into. Even if it’s scary, you’ve made it far enough to accept a date. Then you got all dolled up. Then you got in the car. You’ve made it this far – you can make it through the rest of the first date.

It will probably be a positive experience. You liked someone enough to accept this date in the first place. But if things do go horribly wrong, it’s like an hour of your life and will eventually make a funny story. The worst thing you can do is not try. That’s with anything in life.

The person you’re going on a date with is also probably freaking out. You can take comfort in that. For both of you, there’s going to be a dash of awkwardness and some uncomfortable silences. It’s just natural. Unless you’re both extreme extroverts that love meeting new people (which I am not, I’m really shy and really hesitant about dating).

You can do it. It’s not as a big of a deal as you’re building it up to be in your head. But it could become a big deal, this could be a person you really like. So go into it with an open mind, because it could go well, bad, or in between – but it will probably be worth it.