A first date; a way to prove you're a complete nerd who has an obsession with: Sherlock Holmes, Orchestra music, and Hamilton, to a complete stranger you're trying to persuade to fall in love with you.

Now that we’ve covered that, let's just start by acknowledging that nobody on this planet has ever had a good first date. And if you have, congratulations, you’re not human. First dates can be awkward to the point which you want to climb through the restaurant's bathroom window to escape the impending; prolonged eye contact and uncomfortable body language. These things can happen, and that is normal. To make everyone feel good about their first date, let me share mine, with you.

I had met a guy through social media, who could have been completely fake, but I decided to go for it. We had only talked for about a month or so before we had met. Most people seem to think, ”social media can’t lead to real love”, but hey, let's give it a shot. After politely trying to find a safe environment without telling him I was scared to meet him, we decided on a location… my church. Ouch, a church? REALLY? So yeah, my church; better yet, on Halloween. I decided he could help me hand out candy at trunk or treat. I would like to think that I’m as in love with Halloween as the Sanderson Sisters. Shoutout to anyone who knew that was a Hocus Pocus reference. Since I had been told he was very country, I full out dressed like a cowgirl… SO CLICHE! HANNAH, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? My costume consisted of: boot cut jeans two sizes too small, a flannel with the sleeves rolled up because it was from 7th grade, knee high cowboys boots I borrowed from my grandfather’s closet, pigtails, and an outrageous amount of dark brown freckles drawn upon my cheeks.

As a precaution, I picked up a friend of mine to accompany me on the date, just in case anything were to go wrong. Coincidentally, he also brought a friend! Hmm, could this be a double third wheel? Wow, this gets more awkward by the minuet. When my friend and I had arrived, we began to wait. A few minutes past the hour we see a car drive by and two boys look in our direction, but they continue to drive past. Then we see the car again. I feel a vibration coming from my back pocket.“where should I park”- Luke. My heart began to race, my hands began to shake. As my fingers shakily texted, “there is fine”, he parked and sat there in his car. After profusely sweating for five minutes, he had still not emerged from his car. Did he think my costume was ridiculous? Of course he did. Was I not tall enough? Who knows. Was he as scared as me? Maybe so. Next, I did the single most bravest thing I had ever done. I marched my muddy red boots over to his car and knocked on the driver's side window and said. “You comin'? Or ya just gonna sit there and stare”. I then marched myself back to my seat and sat down. “WHY DID YOU DO THAT? WHO WANTS TO BE YELLED AT ON A FIRST DATE?” exclaimed my brain.
All of the sudden, the car's doors opened. “thank heaven” I thought. Finally he and his friend sat down, as far away as possible from us for who knows what reason. It took at least fifteen minutes for anyone to speak a single word. My friend Baylee began to whisper to me, and his friend began to whisper to him. Was meeting a bad decision? Did I ruin the relationship we hadn't even began yet? An hour into handing out candy, I suggested we go into the church and play hangman on the chalkboard in the classroom.

For the last 30 minutes of our date, otherwise know as unending torturous silence, we played hangman. Small talk began to break out. Things began to improve, that was until I misspelled “Titanic”. Ouch. That was embarrassing. WHy would Titanic be spelled “T-I-T-T-A-N-I-C”? Laughing it off I tried to recover by cracking a dad joke my dad used to tell me. Advice; don't crack dad jokes on a first date, it's like dropping an atomic bomb on yourself. It came time for us to leave, so we did so. We didn't hug, or shake hands, just waved goodbye.
If I had the chance, would I change a few things? Maybe, but after all, we ended up dating, and still are today. Maybe awkward is our thing.