I’m going on a date next week with a woman I met at college. It’s my first time going out with a woman like this, which makes that one sentence feel like a fairly big announcement.
There’s something nice about being able to say I have a date coming up. There’s also the immediate follow-up: I haven’t done this before. Other people seem to have a collection of first-date stories and a working knowledge of how an evening usually goes. I’m still at the beginning of my first story.
We’ve met, so she isn’t a complete stranger. But meeting someone at college and spending time together on a date feel like different things. The word alone gives an ordinary hangout a little extra weight.
I’m looking for the kind of tips people wish they’d had before their first date. Nothing elaborate. I don’t need a script to memorize, and I doubt I could make one sound natural anyway. A few practical pointers would be helpful when everything about the situation is new to me.
For now, the date is still next week, and I’m the person asking everyone else: what should I know before I go?
