My friends were dating and I felt like the third wheel. I went along with it, but I really didn't feel ready. Christine Boucle, who began dating at 13, had a similar experience. Kerri sees a lot of her friends dating for this very wrong reason. For a lot of us, the desire to feel loved is so strong that we will hook up with a partner who we know isn't right for us.
Nothing is further from the truth.
First of all, being in a relationship is hard work. You have to consider another person's feelings and perspectives on just about everything from which movie to see to whether to go away to college. What's more, people need time to learn to be alone, to discover who they are and what they want in life. It's key to having successful relationships later on, experts say. Kerri learned this the hard way.