Not going out when most of your friends are can make you feel awfully ‘out of it’. Sometimes young people get to feeling that they should pair up with anyone who seems willing just so they won’t feel left out. If you feel this way, you need to think carefully about getting involved with “just anybody’. Is it really worth being paired up with someone you don’t truly care about just so you won’t feel left out? Do you really need to be going out in order to feel good about yourself? Is it really fair to the other person to get involved when you aren’t really interested in him or her?
Instead of going out with someone you don’t really care about, you might decide to make friends with a crowd of young people who haven’t started going out yet. Or, you could decide to go along when your friends are paired up to do things like going to parties, dances or the cinema, even though you don’t have a date. Or perhaps you could ask someone you’re ‘just friends’ with to be your partner in these sorts of situation. Most importantly, remember that it’s not going out with someone that makes you a special person; it’s being who you are. With or without a boy-friend or girl-friend, you’re still the same, special person.
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