My mother told me not to date in college. That boys and men will just distract me. Not just from academics, but also from life experiences, friends and clubs and whatever goes on in universities.

I wouldn’t know, because she was as right as I was stubborn. I graduated high school with a boyfriend, and alienated most of my friends. I clung to him and used him as buoy in a tumultuous sea. Isolating ourselves on our own island. He was the only current I was brave enough to swim in. And when the waves grew too strong, I nearly drowned.