With Valentine’s Day around the corner, many are hoping for a day of chocolates, flowers and romantic gestures. While everyone desires the perfect date, many end up being awkward, embarrassing or straight-up scary. To celebrate the season of love, several Capital students shared their worst dates yet.
Sarah Howe, third-year social work major
I went on my first Tinder date ever with this guy I met on the app. I was at his house and his mom came home and I was pretty sure she was drunk. She was like, “How are you doing?” –slurring all her words. We were hanging out, just playing cards, then his brother came home. You had to go through my date’s room to get to the laundry room. His brother came in and said, “I need to wash my shirt. I was at my friend’s house and this guy got stabbed.” My date was casually like “Okay, yeah, you can use the washing machine,” then just said, “that’s my brother.” Never hung out with him ever again.
Maddie Austin, fourth-year nursing major.
Back in high school, this guy DM’d me on Instagram. We were texting for a while and he would try to ask me on dates and everything. He did not go to my school, but knew I had a softball game one day and decided to randomly show up. After the game he followed me back to my house to take me out on a date. We went hiking because I thought it would be a fast date. The sun started to go down, so we left. Then he wanted to get ice cream, so we went and got some. I thought the date would be over when we got back to my house, but once we got back, he asked me what I wanted to do now. I have a golf cart, so we drove it around for a bit. Then he asked to meet everyone in my family. He introduced himself to my whole family, including my grandma, aunt and uncle–all on the first date, which I thought was weird. After all this time, I thought the date would finally be over, then he asked me to go see a movie and picked a three hour movie. He just stared at me for the duration of the movie. When we get back to my house he asks what I wanted to do now… again. I went in the laundry room and I was holding my head. I was like, “What do I have to do to get this guy to leave? This is like, literally seven hours.” We hung out at my house for another two hours, and he once again asked what I wanted to do now. I finally make something up and say I have to go babysit my little cousin. Afterwards, he asked me to meet his family the following weekend, but I ended up cutting him off.
Rye Hilyard, second-year psychology, sociology and criminology major.
Back in high school, my boyfriend at the time and I were going on our first date to a movie. Instead of me going back to my place after school, we just decided to go to his house and hang out until it was time to go to the theater. We went up to his room and he’d closed the door behind us. When his mom saw that, she opened the door and was quick to accuse us of doing something sexual, while we had actually both just been sitting together on his bed while he played video games. But because of her assumption, she made us both come downstairs into the living room and chewed us out for doing something we did not do at all, did not believe us saying we hadn’t done it and threatened to call my parents. Luckily for me, he took the brunt of his mom’s attention and convinced her not to call my folks, while I sat with their dog off to the side and tried to not entirely freak out. Unluckily for us, she decided to chaperone that night and some other dates we had very closely.
Covie Gray, third-year vocal music education major.
When I was 15, this guy from my school took me to see the movie “Hidden Figures”, which is about the Black women who worked as calculators for NASA in the 1960s. He bought me this giant pack of Twizzlers and I forgot to open it before the movie started. It was a Thursday, so there were not many people in the movie theater. Twizzlers packaging is loud and crinkly, so I wanted to wait until there was a loud moment in the film to open my candy. Right as I reached to open it, a very sensitive and raw scene began, and it got super duper quiet in the theater. I was scared to open the Twizzlers, as it seemed insensitive. I felt bad because I did not end up opening the Twizzlers he got me at all, the very next day my little sister ate them all, and I never went on another date with him. So now, I always open my snacks before the movie starts.
Anna Gerber, third-year intervention specialist major.
I went on a first date and this guy was talking about his ex-girlfriend the whole time and talking about how he cheated on her and how she cheated on him. Then he talked about how all his friends are turning against him in his fraternity because of him cheating and all this stuff. Then I paid for our meals. I never saw him again.
Abby Davoll, first-year music education major.
It was for the Fourth of July. This guy I was dating had been really aggressive with how much he liked me and I wasn’t really into him that much. We went on a date and I was kind of going through the motions, and my whole family was there. He really wanted to kiss me and I was like, “my father is watching you like, like a hawk, you know?” And I did not want to do it. And so I said, “Oh, it’s okay. It’s okay.” I was like let’s just wait, but he did not want to wait and kept asking to kiss me my in front of my dad, who is a pastor. Then we left the date; I think a month later I broke up with him. So it’s not like the worst date ever, but it was the fact that he was fighting so hard to kiss me in front of my father that I thought was just really weird.
