The Problems of Dating on Campus

Being in Exeter is a bit like living in the village in Hot Fuzz; you can barely pop to buy some milk without somebody you know seeing you. The walk of shame is a little less discrete when you know at least 5 people who live on the same road as the guy you came home with last night… Her Campus feels your pain – trust us!

1.   Everyone knows everyone. Whether it’s your friend’s friend from their course, or your housemate’s met them because they were part of a super-social at Timepiece, that guy you just got with is bound to be known by somebody you know. There are no secrets here.

2.       There are only a few places to go on nights out in Exeter. If you have a preference, as most of us do, then it’s more than likely you’ll be seeing the same groups of people on certain nights, leading to significantly narrowed options – especially if you’ve already got with someone from that group!

3.       Venturing to campus without seeing anyone you have a history with is just unheard of – this is especially true for any frequenter of Timepiece Wednesdays who attempts to go to the Sports Park unnoticed.

4.       Accidental eye-contact is one thing, but having that awkward “can it please be over” conversation when you run into last night’s hook up in the queue for Costa means you just know everybody around you know exactly what’s gone on. #JUDGEMENT !!!!

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5.       The walk of shame becomes even more unbearable as you wander up Pennsylvania Road, squinting in the cold light of day at people outside Co-op and praying they don’t recognise you. Particularly on a Thursday morning where the 8-10am shift of boys in “1’s” and girls in last night’s social costume are a dead giveaway that somebody had a bit too much fun last night, as they slowly but surely amble home.

6.       When that guy you shared that awful date with at Firehouse turns up in ALL of your seminars. We’ve all had that date where the chat is slow, you feel awkward the entire time and even a bottle of wine isn’t making it better. You just decide to call it a day and pretend that it never happened, hoping never to revisit the terrible evening. And then what happens? You have to sit across from this guy for an entire term’s worth of 9am seminars praying he doesn’t try and initiate any form of conversation. Ever.

7.       Everyone else remembers all the embarrassing stories. And it’s all fun and games until you’re the person who tried to go to the loo in the middle of the night after you’ve gone back with a guy to Lafrowda and suddenly you’ve just walked into a kitchen full of freshers having a post-lash. Wonderful…

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