No tea spills quite as deliciously as a bad date story, and on a college campus filled with students primarily of the peak dating age, romantic drama runs afoot. 

Oftentimes what makes a date bad is spiking levels of awkwardness, the doomed feeling this “just isn’t gonna click,” and — dun, dun, dun — unbearable silence.

Humans, especially Americans, are immeasurably bad at sitting in silence. In fact, we can only last about 4 seconds in silence before we begin to panic and fear rejection, according to a research study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. 

That’s a lot of constant pressure to keep a date feeling good and perfectly unawkward.

On the bright side, nothing warms the heart like a date that actually does result in a fairy-tale ending or even just a happy night without regrets. 

But there’s no rush. We can’t hurry love, or even friendships, but maybe we can collect some fun, crazy stories to tell along the way. 

Valentine’s Day is a day for romance, but we can also celebrate each past attempt made at connecting with another human, successful or not. 

Then we can relay every last excruciating detail to our friends. 

So NIU students, warm and fuzzy or embarrassing and better forgotten, it’s time to spill the beans.