By Julie Nguyen
On the case of finding love
The Waterloo dating culture is an incredibly complex organism to figure out. What apps are people using for hookups? Is it totally unacceptable to spend the night after going home with someone you met at Phil’s? It can seem even more impossible as a UW student with the added stress of meeting people who are in co-op and leave every four months, splitting time between job-hunting and school, and falling into off-synch co-op streams.
Here are some basic rules to follow if you’re going to attempt to find love on this campus.
Cross that bridge when you come to it
It is so easy to think ahead and over-analyze things. For example, you go on one date with someone in software engineering who has exclusively applied to co-op jobs in California for the next eight months. So, instead of investing any time and energy into the relationship further, you end things and quit while you’re ahead, right?
WRONG.
The co-op process and life in general will throw you curveballs. A lot of things may happen that you didn’t know about, and work in favor of your relationship. When you don’t give someone the benefit of the doubt, you give up the chance to really get to know someone.
Recognize that you’ll both be busy
In true UW fashion, chances are, you’ll both have a million things to do. Midterm season never ends, one of you enter into the continuous round of interviews for co-op, the other is the president of three different clubs and a faculty ambassador, the reasons are endless.
UW students always have more than one thing going on, and while it might seem easy to throw in the towel and give up when times get hard, just recognize that it’s okay to have other priorities.
Make the time for each other
… And although you’ll both be busy, it’s very important that you try to make time for each other despite all of the craziness around you. Even if you’re both slammed with midterms, try studying together, or spending study breaks with each other. Incorporate them into your workout schedule and try a shoe-tag class or be muay-thai partners. Walk to and from campus with a coffee in hand.
At the end of the day, it’s the conversations and connections that you form together and they don’t necessarily always have to be fancy and extravagant.
