Opinion: The 5 Types of Guys You Date in College

Let’s face it, your college dating years were kind of a mess. A beautiful and personalized kind of mess, you could look around the room and know exactly where everything was. Your love life was more than complicated. It was filled with late night deadlines while crying so many tears that you could fill your “It’s a beautiful day to save lives” coffee mug, so many laughs that left you breathless and so many mistakes that you should, but wouldn’t dare, take back. In that complicated love life, the guys you dated likely fell in one of the five classic categories.

1. The Heartbreaker

We’ve all been there before. Unrequited love is a classic college melodrama. You’ve never been the one to do the chasing, but for this guy, you had your track shoes on and were ready to go. Of course, he was beautiful, but that wasn’t the only thing that appealed to you. It was how he carried himself, and his confidence that you admired but also envied.  He was smart. He played sports and he checked off the boxes for not only you but most of the girls on campus. Other guys wanted to be him, and the girls were all but lining up to date him.

When he asked you out, it was like winning the golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Knowing his reputation, you knew tying him down was next to impossible but maybe, just maybe, you were special enough to be that girl. You caught his eyes wandering on several occasions, but you told yourself you would wear your skirt a little shorter next time, your heels a little higher or maybe even swap your glasses for contacts. After a few weeks, you knew it was coming. He was on to the next.

2. The Older Guy

“I’m so mature for my age.” How many times do you remember saying that? Getting the attention of men in their 30s came to no surprise. You were smart, beautiful, ambitious and sophisticated. Keeping up with the intellectual conversations was a quality that made you proud. Dating an older man, made you feel like a woman, not a girl, not a college student, but a real woman. As confident and fearless as you were, you came to realize that dating older was probably not in your best interest. Older men just had so much more life experience than you, but that’s okay. You needed time for growth and self-discovery.

3. The “Better off as Friends” Guy

Remember that time you took a chance and dated one of your good friends? Yeah, that was a complete failure; however, the idea didn’t seem so bizarre. You were comfortable with him, you always had a good time together, the conversations were endless and he was just as funny and free spirited as you. Exhausted and frustrated with the dating scene, swiping left and swiping right became another daily assignment on your to-do-list. Maybe what you needed all along was right in front of you? No girl, it was not. 

After weeks of awkward kisses, forced hand holding and conversations that were drier than your over-processed hair that time you bleached it, you realized he had been avoiding you, just as you have been avoiding him. Turning a platonic friendship into a romantic relationship was basically impossible. The friendship had been great, and luckily for you both, salvageable.

4. The “Fixer Upper”

Ugh, the time and energy you devoted helping this guy get his shit together is mind boggling. It’s difficult to watch someone you love and care about waste their potential. Sometimes you see things in others that they can’t see in themselves. So, there you were, the fixer, the superhero, the Captain Save-a-Man, ready to swoop in and save day. How much did you sacrifice, and how long did it go under-appreciated and unnoticed? Your intentions and heart are pure, but in this stage of your life you needed to take care of you first.

5. The College Sweetheart (future husband if you’re lucky)

As you come to learn very well, life is not a fairytale. You had to kiss a lot of frogs to finally meet this guy. In a mixture of cliché’s, he is your knight in shining armor, your better half and your person. This journey of self-discovery made you clear on two things: what you want in life and who you would like to spend it with.  As unimaginable as it may seem, your college sweetheart may not be your future husband; however, he will pave the way for expectations and standards in your future relationships. You can take it as tragic loss, but you can heal from it and let it be your biggest lesson and blessing.