Dating is the time during your relationship with people when you are supposed to be your happiest. You haven’t settled down and had children yet, your bank possessions aren’t legally tied together yet, and you’re still growing close to different people who you’re experimenting with. Be it your long-term partner or someone you’ve just started seeing, these are the times when you shouldn’t feel immense pressure.

You should go into dating with a positive outlook. You are doing this to make yourself happy, so you should squeeze all of the good from it that you can. Realize that every person you date, even for short periods of time, will have a noticeable impact on how you date people for the rest of your life. You should take comfort in that, and know that every relationship is going to work out for you in its own, unique way.

Especially in today’s day and age, dating is more socially common. Women can go out with plenty of different men and won’t be viewed as “slutty”, and men don’t have to be the dominant driving force behind making things happen. Since society has changed, dating has changed with it. It has become more of an equal playing ground for both sexes, and that sets your dating life up to be a much happier one than it would have been years ago.

So if you aren’t happy, you need a slight readjustment of your perception. Look at things as a learning experience, and don’t judge the weight of those experiences poorly if they didn’t turn out the way you wanted them to. You’ve learned something, and you’re ready for bigger and better things. Or maybe you want to stay in the casual dating game for a bit longer. It’s your happiness, and it’s your choice.