The soul mate search
By Jaclyn Lipp, Staff Writer
February 15, 2007 | 8:02 p.m.
The idea of finding a soul mate in college seems to be dimming as a casual hook-up is becoming the equivalent of an average relationship, but there still may be hope for the hopeless romantics in all of us.
Many of you may have grown up listening to love stories fondly recalled by parents or grandparents about how they first met their spouse in college. The reality used to be that many people met someone special and even got married partway through or soon after finishing school. However, is that still the case with current dating attitudes, people marrying later and the discouraging statistics about divorce?
According to a 2005 article in USA Today, the average age for a first marriage in the United States is now 27 for men and 26 for women. That new timeline for young people doesn’t seem to coincide with meeting someone in school. This can be fairly discouraging to students who ever grew up thinking that they would meet the person of their dreams in college.
However, the attitudes of more than 100 Ohio University students polled on their views about dating during college were surprisingly positive and may indicate otherwise. Even with people being more concerned about independence and having a good time in college, an overwhelming majority responded that they still do plan to get married at some point.
Freshman Robert Ausdenmoore grew up believing that he would meet his future spouse in college after seeing the examples set by both his parents and older sister.
“I still think given the huge amount of people here it could still be possible to meet a significant other,” Ausdenmoore said.
Many people responded that they are happy just to see what happens, or that they expect to meet someone when they are in their last year or two of college, when people are more mature. Some even claimed to have already met the person with whom they think they want to spend the rest of their lives, whether they are dating someone they met here or in high school.
Perhaps one of the most hopeful responses came from David Hayward, a first-year student, who said about his future spouse, “She’s around here somewhere.
There was also a small minority in the survey that didn’t have such positive things to say. They believed more in the idea that college is four years spent testing out newfound independence and having fun. For the modern dating scene on campuses, this often translates into partying and having casual or even random hook-ups rather than relationships.
From a male perspective, freshman Logan Singleton backed up that statement by saying, “I’m looking more for hook-ups as of now.”
Even for people who don’t simply participate in hook-ups, dating can be a tricky business to master. First, there’s the challenge of having to figure out when to have “the talk” about whether you’re actually dating or not, as well as dealing with the lack of mystery if you’re involved with a person who lives just a few doors down the hall. Even just finding interesting things to do on dates is challenging.
Some negative views were also expressed about the other gender’s outlook on dating and marriage.
When asked what she thought about male attitudes on looking for the person they will eventually marry, freshman Erica Nunez replied, “I think the dorky ones want to get married eventually, but I don’t think the rest of them give a shit.”
Even with the changing times and attitudes, many young people are still eager to have stories of romantic meetings of their own to tell their children one day. No matter if you’re in a relationship, feeling lonely in the single life or content just having fun, know that it is still in the back of many OU students’ minds that sometime during their four years here, they too are hoping to stumble upon the person with whom they will want to spend the rest of their lives.
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