Dating is an unavoidable part of the college world. With Valentine’s Day rapidly approaching, Messiah College students shared some of the most adorable and cringe-worthy ways they’ve navigated the dating scene – some successful, and others not so much.
1. “Over the summer, I went to visit her family’s house for the weekend, where I asked her dad for permission to date his daughter. I then had three weeks to plan the perfect way to ask her out. The day she arrived on campus, I helped her move in, then stole her away for a walk. I took her to a clearing in a meadow behind one of our residence halls, where I’d gone earlier in the day to hide a bouquet of wildflowers I picked. When we got to that spot, I gave her a blue necklace I’d made for her, pulled the wildflowers out from where I’d hidden them, and asked her to be my girlfriend.” – Ben Talbot, Sophomore, Economics and Bible & Religious Studies
2.“I used to bring a certain jacket to math class each day, knowing she would want to use it. The AC was always running to its max, and I knew if she got cold enough, she would talk to me and ask for my jacket.” – Bryan Leong, Junior, Psychology and Politics
3. “I made him a necklace with his name on it, wrapped it up in plastic and put it in a popcorn box. I then had him feed me popcorn at the movies until he eventually found it.” – Deborah Chang, Junior, Marketing
4. “I set up firecrackers on both sides of the street. Then I had two friends walk her onto the street. I was standing there with a guitar. When she came into view, I set up the fireworks to explode and tried to play her Stevie Wonder’s ‘Isn’t she Lovely.’ Unfortunately I only got to sing the first verse – I forgot the rest, so I just kept singing the first part.” – James Lee, Freshman, Sociology
5. “I took her stargazing on Cemetery Hill on the night before her birthday. Soon after it turned midnight, she saw her first shooting star, and I asked her to be my girlfriend.” – Michael Momose, Junior, Public Relations
6. “He brought me to a park and told me, ‘you are so wife material.’” – Alexandria Kucha, Sophomore, Music
7. “He gave me a card for each word – ‘will you be my valentine?’ A flower came with each card, and he made sure I got them all in different ways and from different people.” – Andrea Yong, Junior, Psychology
8. “This guy had had a crush on me all semester, and didn’t know how to say it. He’d always had a goatee, and had recently started growing it into a full beard. I’d mentioned in passing to a mutual friend that I liked the improvement. Soon after, he awkwardly brought it up, saying, ‘so-and-so said that my beard was really growing on you. Well, it’s growing on me too.’ That cringe-worthy joke was followed up with, ‘So, movie sometime?’…The answer was ‘no’.” – Abbie Daley, Junior, International Business
9. “I turned around the corner and there he was, white flowers in one hand and a pink laced bag in the other. He asked me to be his date to the upcoming dance then handed me the bag. When I opened it, I saw there was this giant bloody mass of a cow’s heart inside. I guess it was supposed to be a, ‘you have my heart’ kind of cute gift. He just stood there, and didn’t explain it. That was years ago and we’re still together to this day.” – Ashley Stock, Senior, Education
10. “I knew he was in my chemistry class, but I’d never really talked to him before. One day, I saw him come out with his long-board, so I spontaneously grabbed my RipStik and joined him. I took a pretty hard tumble at the bottom of a hill, and later in the day he sent me an email to ask if I was okay. Soon after, we went to a dance event where I went to lean back and he didn’t catch me, so I fell on my back again. We’ve been dating for over a year now and he always says that I fell for him first.” – Chelsea Book, Sophomore, Business
