I’ve gone out on a bunch of dates with a woman over the course of the last month, and during that time we have gotten along great and had a lot of fun together. This has led me to contemplate if we havereached the point where I should introduce her to my friends. Obviously I am well aware of how inexact the science of dating is; but I do think that there is always the potential for disaster (in the form of scaring someone off) if you introduce them to your friends too early. Sure, you could have an adult conversation about your relationship where you both get on the same page as to exactly how each of you feels about the relationship and where it is heading, but for most people, me included, that is once again a dicey area because you don’t want to have that conversation too soon either.

Since I’ve been thinking about whether it is the right (or even a good) time to introduce the woman I’ve been seeing to some of my friends , and have teetered back and forth, this has eventually indicated to me that I should probably not try to force it by specifically setting something up, and rather should just let an opportunity naturally present itself. Fortunately for me I didn’t have to wait very long since a few days after I reached the prior sentence’s conclusion a good friend of mine informed me that his birthday party was going to be the upcoming weekend. Immediately I figured that this was the right opportunity to introduce her to some of my friends since the setting would be very casual, and there wouldn’t be much pressure since there would be a large group of people – many of which I won’t even know. Last night I invited her to the party via text since she is out of town for work and that is the primary way that we have been communicating, although her response of “sure” was less than enthusiast; but I have tried not to read too much into it since, after all, it was in a text message.

Ultimately we’ll have to see how things end up going this weekend, and whether or not she was actually ready, and wanting, to be introduced to some of my friends. Since asking her I have tried to put myself in her shoes and think about how I would feel is she had invited me to a birthday party this weekend for one of her friends, and I can honestly say that I would be more than happy, although a little nervous, to go. When it comes right down to it during relationships you have to take leaps. Over the course of time many of these leaps will inevitably seem scary, difficult or not quite right at the time; but in spite of those (and other) apprehensions we might feel we still need to take them because those leaps are what fuel a relationship and bring two people closer together.