Rant: I hate everything about college relationships

To be clear, I don’t mean dating in college but every ambiguous relationship that results from college.

To be clear, I’m a girl in college so I’m not angry that I can’t get a relationship, but all the idiotic culture behind how it works.

I recently got out of a relationship so I started to play the field a bit in college. I didn’t want to date anyone, but I didn’t want to be a one time hookup so I was looking for something consistent and casual.

What I didn’t realize, which I think is the most immature thing about people in college, is the games that people play. You have to play hard to get and leave them wanting more, make them feel jealous by doing this, take hours to text back so you don’t look easy. Seriously? What happened to just being straight forward and honest? I thought that’s what everyone would want?

I always found merit in honesty, especially in any type of a relationship. If I wanted to hook up with a guy I previously hooked up with, I’d let him know and ask if he was free. If the guy is getting distant, I’ll ask him if he is still interested. The thing is, I feel like people are too scared to give me an honest answer even though I say I won’t be upset.

I have now had bad experiences with guys who I hooked up with and then seemingly just ghost me out of nowhere. We hook up a few times, they say they want to see me again, and then they barely text back and never ask to hook up.

Now I look like an idiot when I want to talk to these guys about what happened or if they actually do want to hook up. Apparently I come off as clingy or over emotional when I always approach it in the most rational way I can.

I know that not every guy is like this, but the problem isn’t the guys. When I talk to my friends, they basically tell me to play these games too. I always just stop and think, what’s stopping me from just being straightforward? Now, which I never did before, I am so self conscious about how guys see me, I feel myself being more timid than I was before. I used to be the type of girl to ask a guy out myself and now I’m too scared to just text one because it might give the wrong signals and I’ll be ignored again.

I’m just fed up.