I was at a party my freshman year in college and frustrated that my love life wasn’t any better than it was in high school when I received the best advice of my life. A drunk upperclassman at the party asked me what was wrong. (I guess I was looking a little lost and confused while my friend made out with some guy at the party.)

I told the truth. I told him that I hadn’t met any good guys yet and was worried that I wouldn’t be able to. EVER.

He looked at me kind of cross-eyed because of the four beer bongs he had just finished and told me that I needed to broaden my horizons a bit.

“Right now, you’re only looking at guys in your dorm. There’s a lot of guys at this school. You need to start looking in your classes and on campus. You’ll find someone.”

Although he wasn’t exactly Nostradamus in the extreme wisdom of his prophecy, his advice made total sense to me. I didn’t actually have to only look at the three or four attractive guys on the same floor as I was in my dorm. I could scope out guys elsewhere on campus and see what happened.

It took quite a bit longer than I wanted, but I eventually found a good one.

I’ve noticed the same pattern in guys and girls alike. We all get stuck in the same social networks and don’t broaden our horizons enough.

I met a friend for a drink the other day and we talked about ways to meet people to date. (The last time I had met for a drink several months ago, he had promised to take a date challenge in which he would bravely ask a girl for a date once a week for a month. He did not complete his mission.) Online dating came up as possibility; he wondered if we would be accidentally matched up if we signed up for the same site, then he had to break it to me ever so gently that I wouldn’t meet his height requirements. (I’m not at liberty to disclose what those may be in the interest of respecting the innocent.)

Taking classes at the community college or at the gym also came up as ideas; I had to gently break it to him that he might meet a lot of grandmas at his pottery class. He promised me he would take a few classes after his vacation, but we’ll have to wait and see if he follows through. Of course, I made many of the same promises to him, so we’ll just have to wait and see.