I've never had a boyfriend, and am pretty shy. I really would like to have someone to read the paper with, talk to, sleep next to, have kids with and so on, but I don't know if it's going to happen. I think I am strange. I don't like cats, but I can see myself becoming one of those old ladies with 500 cats to keep her company. Ask Mr. Blue Print story E-mail story Flummoxed Dear Flummoxed, If you have friends whom you like, then you'll find romance.
Romance is based on friendship, a sort of dizzy, juiced-up version of it.
If you feel OK about your life and you enjoy your studies, then you're basically in good shape, and you should move on to the next thing and not think about when you're 58. I am 58, dear girl, and there's a lot good to be said about this time of life, but you needn't think about that yet. Think about 19 and 20 and 21. This happened to me and to millions of other shy people when we went from high school to college. Shy eccentrics blossomed into writers or scholars or social gadflies and suddenly those painful years became just one more interesting story and we went on to our real lives.