Oh no here we go, deep breath. I step out of my car into the winter air, shaking and nervous. I walk slowly into the restaurant. It’s just Steak n’ Shake, not some really fancy restaurant but the constant flips my stomach is doing makes it feel like I’m being interviewed for something really important. I walk through the huge glass doors… Bang! I tripped over the step inside the door. This marked the start to my first date.


I had never met him before, but after I recovered from my really embarrassing fall, I walked in and sat down. His dark hair and dark brown eyes, that I wasn’t expecting, took me by surprise. His perfect white teeth and his smile made a million butterflies flutter in my stomach. I sat down and he said, “hi.” I’m too flabbergasted to know what to say back but I manage to get out a weak “h-hi.”


You know that feeling when you’re on a roller coaster and you drop really fast. That’s what I was feeling and it was really uncomfortable. I was not being my normal self. I ordered water and fries instead of pigging out like I normally would. I only took a few bites before I decided that if I ate anymore, I might puke. Dinner was so awkward, not knowing what to say, we both kept making awkward eye contact and smiling, like when your parents make you go to dinner with people you don’t know and their kids come. I didn’t think this date was going to turn out right. I was so self conscious about absolutely everything there could be. Is my hair okay? Do I have anything in my teeth? Am I sweating or shaking? Am I coming off as too nervous? I could just feel my face turning bright red. My stomach really started to feel like I had just done one hundred back flips on the trampoline.


We got done eating and we had a lot of time to spare before the movie, so we walked to Dollar General. It was cold, icy and snowy outside, and being a teenage girl, I refused to wear a coat. I was absolutely freezing and as we were walking the parking lot started becoming icy and slick. I knew as soon as I saw the ice that it was not going to end well. As clumsy as I am, I slipped and got my jeans completely wet. At this point I think he started to realize the real me, and after we both laughed for about five minutes, I started to see the real side of him. We went in and got our candy and on the walk back to the theater we started talking about pretty much everything. He was asking about my family and I was asking about his. I learned things like the sports he plays and the kinds of things he does in his free time. We found out we had a lot in common and the date was going much better. After the movie, we were saying our goodbyes and he said,
“I had a really good time.”
I said, “so did I.”
Then he invited me to an event at his church on New Year’s Day. That was when we started dating and we still are today, almost a year later. So my advice to any teenage girls out there is to just be yourself on your first date, Even when your stomach is doing flips and the butterflies are doing one- eighties.