Guys You Date Before You Finally Meet The Man Of Your Dreams

If you have spent your adult years searching for “The One,” then you will probably recognize some of these archetypes that you found yourself dating along the way:

1. The Starter

This is the guy that you find in high school. You guys do the prom together, you even consider staying together long distance for college. Naturally, it all implodes two weeks into the first semester of freshman year. You’ll always have a fond place in your heart for him, though.

2. The Caveman

You make it to a frat party sometime in the first couple of weeks since getting to college. You’re still with the The Starter at this point, so seeing the gorgeous-yet-monosyllabic piece of man meat doing a keg stand is major turn off. However, you get drunk and turn to him for breakup consoling a few weeks later. You guys date, but it becomes apparent very quickly that his true love is binge drinking and weight lifting.

3. The Troll

After the disaster that was The Caveman, you want someone a little bit more serious. However, you make the mistake of over correcting and go for the seemingly shy and quiet guy in your favorite class. He wears glasses and t-shirts featuring the TARDIS so you feel a little more comfortable. However, you find out that this guy is pretty deep into an obsession of his own — World of Warcraft. And reading some of the nasty things he writes on comment boards makes you queasy.

4. The Poet

This guy is a TA you meet sometime in your sophomore year. Your friends tell you it’s a mistake to mix work with pleasure but you do so anyway. It doesn’t take too long to figure out that the guy is intellectually crushing on the professor and you have zero chance of making any real headway with him.

5. The Chameleon

You get drunk and have sex with this guy one night. He cries. He tells you he thinks he might be gay. Need we say more?

6. The Casanova

This guy actually seems to tick all of the boxes. He is warm, intelligent, attractive, funny, and charming. Okay, maybe he’s  a little too charming. He’s spending too much time talking to other girls, despite insisting that you're the only one for him. You break up after trying to surprise him at his place and finding a sock on the front door.

7. The Statue

After everything that you’ve been through, you overcorrect once again and find the most lukewarm guy around. He barely speaks and when you do manage to wrestle some words out of him they’re mostly about the weather. Obviously, this guy was a mistake. You don’t even really need to break up with him. You guys mutually ghost until it’s over.

8. The One

This one is a little hard to pin down. You’ll just know him when you meet him. There will be butterflies and singing birds, maybe. Or maybe he just offers to buy you a cup of coffee the morning your dispenser decided to go on the fritz. Whatever he does to get you, it works.