How much do you even know yourself? How much have you learnt about who you are? What are your values? What can you handle emotionally? What are your strengths and what are your weaknesses? You keep discovering yourself as you grow older and at a young age you don’t want to have another person discover you for you; that is you don’t know about yourself then you start dating someone that doesn’t know about himself, the only Idea of a relationship he has is the Hollywood/Nollywood definition of relationship and you want him to understand you? That is a recipe for disaster. Let me tell you what getting in a relationship early would do for you. It would open a side of you that should have been kept till you are ready (that is your emotions) then when the first hurt comes you may not know how to handle it (I can remember my first hurt because I am an emotional head who easily cries, I cried like a baby not because of the end of the relationship, after all, I ended it, but because he ignored me, when I called out to him in public ;). Let us go back to what an early relationship can do to you. 1) It will hurt you, a hurt that goes beyond what your friend or mum and dad has ever done to you.
2) It will distract you .
3) You may not feel whole again.
4)You may have fears of the next relationship.
5) You will get suspicious about the next relationship.
6) Lack of trust.
7)) A preconceived notion that someone is taking advantage of you.
8) You may think you don’t deserve better based on past relationships, therefore making you want to settle for less.
9) You may blame yourself for any problem you encounter in your relationship and future relationship If you were taken advantage of in a previous relationship, you may think it is your fault and go on to another relationship trying to fix things. I know as a young kid, you cannot wait to be responsible for someone but if you are still taking lunch money from your parents and solely dependent on them, you really just need to enjoy doing that. Take your time, you will get there, where you would go into a relationship and be in love with that guy or girl, that will be totally worth your heart, worth the risk, that would bring out the best version of you. Just remain single, whole, till you are sure you can handle the responsibility, stress, emotions, love, self control that a relationship entails. Ask yourself, is it really the right time to date? Do you really think that every 18-22 year old guy is thinking marriage? Make friends , enjoy the friendship, if you start “catching feelings” for each other, “catch it” and eventually you will “catch out”, not all feelings should be followed with a stamp of relationship, some of us don’t even know who we are outside a relationship, we are just serial daters and when we are not dating we feel empty, we cannot even enjoy the company of ourselves…Slow down, discover you, enjoy being with you… it is worth it. 
