Everything You Wanted to Know About Dating at Boarding School

Updated on 4/24/2016 at 8:50 PM

Let me get this out of the way: dating in high school is awkward, undeniably weird, and often melodramatic. Or maybe that's just me? But I'm inclined to believe otherwise. Now imagine dating at a coed high school where you live with your romantic interest. It's either chaos or tragedy — depending on the stage of the relationship. For example: if you break up, you are guaranteed to see them every day until Summer. If they move on, you're bound to see that too (tragedy). You're also forced to get "creative" about where you "hook up." I mean really creative. So without further ado, I bring you what it's really like to date at boarding school.

It was all about the school dances.

Nothing says Saturday night fun like a school-sponsored dance. Just ask my 15-year-old self; she wouldn't be able to contain her excitement. As a sophomore, junior, and unfortunately sometimes as a freshman, dancing with a senior boy was the ultimate honor. Most of our dances were held on the bottom floor of the dining hall, which also happened to have glass windows. You know what that means? If you left with someone, everyone would know! There was no such thing as a "secret" at boarding school.

Relationships go from zero to 100, real quick.

At boarding school, you could make out with someone one day and the next be dating. It's not really that surprising when you consider we saw each other every day. You're practically married by week two.

Everyone is "peacocking."

There are no days off at boarding school. When your crush was in at least one of your classes, you can't risk a single bad hair day. My class was pretty small, so that also meant limited selection. Girls (and guys) were always competing. So not only do you have to look your best 24/7, but you also have to look better than the other chick vying for your crush's attention. This means: attention-seeking actions, loud squealing, scoring goals during sports, generally just winning.

Breakups are pretty much the end of the world.

At a normal high school, breakups are undoubtedly difficult — but you can also avoid your former flame. When you break up with someone at boarding school, there is NO escaping. You're going to see each other at least once a day, you're going to see when they move on to a girl you will also see at least once a day, and you're going to struggle to pretend like you don't care. I deserve an Oscar for playing it as cool as I did when I got dumped my senior year and proceeded to watch my ex leave a dance with a younger girl. At least a nomination.

We hooked up in some . . . interesting places.

I don't want to incriminate myself here, but for the sake of humor, I will proceed. We were allowed to visit members of the opposite sex's rooms, but there were rules . . . rules that didn't really allow you explore each other's bodies, shall we say? So we got inventive and definitely weird. At night you would see couples hand-in-hand headed to the golf course, athletic fields, or even the woods that surrounded the school. I once got turf burn from hooking up with my boyfriend on an athletic field. Another crowd favorite? Classrooms. It was quite a peculiar experience to show up for history in the same room you were with your boyfriend the night before. Distracting, to say the least. But that peculiar feeling was not half as bad as getting caught: parents would be called, you would be punished, and everyone knew about it!