I don't think anyone prepared us for how weird dating in your twenties would be.

Growing up, it seemed pretty straightforward. You meet someone, fall in love, and ride off into the sunset together. Easy peasy, right?

Instead, you're trying to figure out whether someone likes you based on their texting habits. One week you're excited because you've met someone new, and the next week you're staring at your phone wondering why they've suddenly gone quiet after talking to you every day.

I think one of the biggest scams of adulthood is that nobody tells you how hard friendships can be in your twenties, both to make and to keep.

When you're younger, making friends feels relatively straightforward. You're in the same classes, on the same sports teams, living in the same residence building, or seeing each other every day at school. Proximity does a lot of the work when it comes to building and maintaining friendships.

One of my favourite movies growing up was A Cinderella Story. While there are plenty of things I loved about it (the early 2000s nostalgia, and the classic teen romance storyline, and let’s be honest prime Chad Michael Murray), there is one quote from the movie that has always stuck with me:

I think one of the strangest feelings is being surrounded by people and still feeling alone.

You can have friends, family, a partner, or a full calendar of plans and still have this quiet feeling that something is missing. That can be a really confusing feeling because, on the surface, it might look like you have everything you need. When we think about loneliness, we often picture someone sitting by themselves with no one to call, but loneliness isn't always about the number of people around you. Sometimes it's about whether you feel truly known, understood, and connected.

I know it sucks when the plans you’ve created go awry, whether that’s a relationship ending or a career not fulfilling you in the way you thought it would. Your life might feel like it’s been thrown off course, but what if it’s exactly where you need to be?

I want you to picture this like a flight. You packed the night before, set an alarm (or 20) to wake you up in the morning, and left for the airport with plenty of time to spare. You walk through the airport doors and check the screen for your flight only to find the dreaded word in bold red text: CANCELLED.

One of my favourite things about Ted Lasso is that, on the surface, it seems like a show about soccer, sorry I meant football.

It’s really a show about people. It’s about the parts of ourselves we try to hide, the ways we protect ourselves when we’re hurt, and learning how to show up for others while still showing up for ourselves.

One of the things Ted is known for is his kindness. He walks into almost every situation with warmth, patience, and a genuine desire to understand the people around him. He believes that kindness matters, even when things are difficult. I think there’s something really beautiful about that.

Have you ever had that moment where you're telling a friend about someone you're dating and halfway through the story you realize, "Oh no, I've dated this person before"? Not literally, of course, but somehow the story feels familiar. They're hard to read. Communication is inconsistent. They seem interested one day and distant the next. You spend a lot of time wondering how they feel about you instead of actually knowing.