Hey thanks Tir!!! You truly are my unofficial ‘big sister’ haha, but your advice has been helpful! 
I drink Guiness!!
It lasts as long as it lasts. You can’t put a time limit on it.
To some extent I guess it depends on you, but as this thing takes two people to make work, it’s not soley down to you, so even if you’re not getting anywhere, or getting hurt, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing something wrong, just that you’re attempting to do it with the wrong person.
But you’ll only learn “right” and “wrong” people by going out and trying and learning from the results.
And sadly there is no way to avoid making mistakes and getting hurt. But try not to dwell on it, and try to move on. The end result is so worth it, I promise you.
It seems to be a standard rule, that if you let it become a less important be-all-and-end-all of life, you generally start having more success. You’re more relaxed and confident, and those are attractive qualities.
Worry about being comfortable with and accepted by yourself first before you worry about being with a significant other.
Pleased to hear about the Guinness though! We’ll get you up to speed yet! 
Aries28, I don’t know about Alabama, and I don’t know if this was maybe something you were considering, but the age of consent in the UK is 16, so Twisty wasn’t advocating Ryan do anything naughty, I thought the “going out to get some” thing was a standard part of puberty? Certainly was in my circles!
As for Twisty being a neanderthal, you’re spot on! He eats processed cheese and get’s crumbs in the bed and everything! 
Twisty, obligatory simupost!
I’ll go get the stable ready…
FWIW, Ryan, my own experience is that if you find a woman whom you enjoy being with, a friend, love grows from that relationship. It happened to me; it happened to many of my acquaintances that have stable marriages.
I guarantee that “love at first sight” sometimes happens – but far more often it’s unrequited desire (including but not limited to sexual desire) on the part of one person for another who is not aware of the extent and depth of the first person’s feelings.
Take out a girl – several girls – with the idea of having a good time for an evening. See which ones you enjoy being with, and whether they enjoy being with you. When you’ve gotten that far, you’ll know whether one of them is the one that you want to spend the rest of your life with.
Somebody whose Alzheimers’ is not so far advanced that they cannot remember what being a teenager felt like ought to write a book on how to deal with this sort of thing.
Wow thanks guys, it just felt from my perspective that I am on my own in this experience…man I can’t wait not to be a teenager anymore
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Tir Tinuviel *
**Aries28, I don’t know about Alabama, and I don’t know if this was maybe something you were considering, but the age of consent in the UK is 16, so Twisty wasn’t advocating Ryan do anything naughty, I thought the “going out to get some” thing was a standard part of puberty? Certainly was in my circles!
As for Twisty being a neanderthal, you’re spot on! He eats processed cheese and get’s crumbs in the bed and everything!
I never called him a neanderthal…those were his words…not mine. I also never suggested he was suggesting anything naughty. I merely pointed out that Ryan seemed to be discussing more of a committed relationship and not just random sex. In fact, Ryan himself posted and said he “wasn’t like that anyway.”
I guess I misunderstood the original post being more about love, relationships and the like and not just your average puberty, going and getting some, etc.
Again, no harm and no offense intended.
Tir, regardless of the local age of consent, encouraging a teenager to be promiscuous isn’t really a good idea. They come up with plenty of that on their own without any help, thankyouverymuch. You see, there’s no such thing as safe sex. There’s less risky sex, but no safe sex. There’s all these nasty little things like bacteria and viruses and sperm, and they get through condoms and such fairly frequently. Frankly, this young man doesn’t sound ready to deal with fatherhood, chlamydia, or AIDS and the more “broads” he gets some from, the more likely one of these things is to happen.
(On a side note, who the hell lets a man call women broads and doesn’t knock his teeth out of his head? That kind of stuff doesn’t fly in this house, let me tell you.)
CCL, I wouldn’t actually use the word “broads” IRL. It’s the word that is in the phrase I used that is from a Jerkey Boys sketch. I appreciate that it wasn’t obvious from my usage, but my post was suposed to be lighthearted encouragement to go out and enjoy himself, rather than moping about lamenting his love life.
CrazyCatLady, I managed to be a “promiscuous” teenager, and strangely enough I never had to deal with pregnancy, STD’s, etc. Neither did anyone else I knew at the time. (Having gone to an all girls school, there’s no way information like that would have been kept secret for more than a couple of days.)
And believe me, there was a whole lotta shagging going on.
A bit of common sence about who you’re sleeping with, and how you’re doing it is all that’s needed.
Encouraging someone to get out there and meet people, and maybe even try it on, is not necessarily a Bad Thing. Especially if it builds social confidence and allows him to discover exactly what he is looking for.
Besides, we’ve had a couple of conversations with Ryan_Liam on IM. Any comments Twisty or I have made here are with the benefit of “insider knowledge”.
On your side note, why should I censor his language? He wasn’t using the term to insult me personally, and wasn’t trying to insult anyone else by proxy.