One of the best parts of summer recess is the sudden absence of adult supervision. It’s less likely someone older is around ensuring that your bedroom door stays open or scolding you to “get to class.” There are places to sneak away to that the colder months don’t allow and no such thing as a school night that forces you to end your evenings early. These new circumstances won’t change things for everyone, but the extra freedom and opportunity might lead to extra fooling around.

With all of the skimpy bikinis, songs about summer love, and free time, you would think keeping up a romance when school isn’t in session would be a breeze. But dating during the summer months comes with its own challenges. If you’re about to take the relationship you started during the school year into the summer, do yourself a favor and think through how you’ll approach some of the difficulties that are rarely discussed. 

Yes, flirting is fun.  It’s exciting, makes you feel good, and at the end of the day it’s pretty harmless.  Harmless that is, unless you’re becoming a flirt.  Flirting is fine, but being a flirt is something you want to avoid.  Here’s how: 

Struggling with whether or not to de-friend your ex?  If you can check off ANY of the following boxes then I’d say yes.    

Dances in high school are awkward enough on their own. With trying to pull yourself away from the snack table to join everyone else who seems to effortlessly dance so much better than you, pretending being dropped off by your mom doesn’t make you any less cool, and acting like you actually like all the dancey pop hits the DJ blasts that have already been played to death…well…school dances are a struggle. 

Once you get to high school, a whole new world of possibilities opens up for you. Suddenly you aren’t limited to dating the boys you’ve known since kindergarten—the same ones who put gum in your hair or threw spitballs at you from across the room. Nope, you can leave those immature losers behind for a sophisticated older guy.

Guys often get a bad rap for being the ones who pressure their girlfriends into having sex. So it may surprise you to know that a lot of guys (8 out of 10 if you want to get exact) say that they feel pressured by their friends, the media, even girls, to get busy doing “it”.

In high school we have teachers to help us through tough subjects, we have coaches to guide us to victory, and a lucky few of us have older brothers who are there to give us advice as we try to figure out girls, dating, and relationships. But I didn’t have an older brother and many of you might not either. In a previous post, Maritza noted that there was tons of information she never got from her older sister that might have prevented some stupid romantic mistakes. And now it’s my turn to imagine which words of wisdom would have been most helpful from an older brother. 

Do you or someone you know suffer from these symptoms?

• Internet history composed primarily of Facebook photo albums of one particular girl.
• Modified, oftentimes inconvenient paths to class to increase the odds of run-ins with this particular girl.
• Over-exaggerated eye rolls from friends upon mentioning her name due to excessive referencing of her.

Whether it’s a romantic interest or just a friend, watching a girl you care about date a dude you don’t think is right for her can be an awkward experience. They get so lovey-dovey it makes you cringe. She blabs about how great he is so much you can’t help but gag. You think they’re a terrible fit and it won’t stop bothering you. So how do you deal?