What I Wish Teenage Me Knew About Boys

**Dad, if you happen to be browsing my blog, you may want to skip this post. I don't think this one's for you...

I've got a mega lovely friend who is 18. My life at 17/18 feels LITERALLY, and this isn't one of those exaggerated uses of literally, a billion years apart from my life currently.

It's a whole degree, 2 new best friends, 3 jobs, 2 and a half boyfriends (only one that counts, though), 2 best friends with babies, one old friend married, and over 10 holidays ago. How crazy is that?

So she was having some recent boy problems and it got me thinking back to those days... To set the scene - when I was 18 there was a boy I reeeally liked a lot, lets call him Pablo, and he was supposed to like me, too. But OH MY GOD how much fucking effort was it??

He'd tell me he liked, and we'd have sex, I'd drop everything for him, I even ended a relationship with a new boy I was seeing when Pablo told me he regretted being a dick to me just for him to turn around after and say "soz changed my mind again". In the YEAR that we were "on and off", we never ever ever went on one real date.

I'd say that was okay, though, y'know? I'm independent. I don't care, no strings attached, I don't have to like him that much. If anything happens it happens, but if it doesn't, that's cool. LOL WHO WAS I KIDDING?

Then other boys came around and it was all omg they read my text and didn't text me back. Ooh they haven't text me back in 5 hours so now I won't text them back for 5 hours... Even though I really want to speak to him. He hasn't asked me on a date so I'm not going to ask him on a date. Omg he put one less kiss so maybe I should put 2 less so I don't look too keen? Am I sounding weird, like, are these paragraphs too long? Or are these too short? I don't want to spam him.

Sound familiar?? I hope it doesn't, but it almost definitely does.

Anyway, back to my 18 year old friend. She's currently chatting to a boy on Tinder, and they went on a date the other day. She was asking some questions in our group chat about what to do, and some of the advice she was being given by our (young) friends was very reminiscent of the advice me and my friends used to give each other.

If you're a regular reader you'll know all about Martin. I talk about him a lot 'cause he's a good little egg. Well Martin and I have been together for nearly 3 years now, and not once have we ever had to play games or make each other jealous to vie for the others attention. It's been so easy. I'd never experienced a relationship like that before. Maybe it's because Martin is a bit older than me, who knows. But it made me realise that if you have to battle for someones attention or affection, you really, really don't want it.

If a boy likes you, he likes you and he will show it. This is all such generic advice and I suppose when I was 16/17 I knew it, I just didn't believe it or didn't want to listen. But it's so so true. If a boy isn't texting you back - it's okay. You don't have to not text him back for a day just to even the score. If he keeps ignoring your texts, maybe he's not interested and you need to move away from him. It's okay to ask, too, by the way!

Basically - don't chase boys. The right person won't need to be chased, and a really, really good relationship won't take a shit tonne of effort at the beginning. A few years in is when things maybe start to change - when you live together, become more comfortable and reveal your bad habits, go on holiday together. In the just getting to know you phase it should be easy and fun. Don't waste time on boys who make you play games. It's not worth it. 

Follow </center>