Crushing on my coach...

[DragonRider]

First off: Good grief, it's been a long time since I posted on here! Despite what my profile will tell you, I have in fact been a member on here for about four years. Hello again, Teenhelp, my old friend.

Anyway, let's get on to what I was actually going to talk about.

So, I started university in September with my friend who I went to college with (for those of you who are not familiar with the English education system, college is not the same as university; it is optional post-16 education that comes before university) She had discovered beforehand that the university has a trampolining club and really wanted to join, since she's been trampolining for many years. However, she didn't want to go by herself, so she convinced me to join with her.

Which has been great, by the way; despite my only previous trampolining experience being doing a few seat drops on a miniscule trampoline in my best friend's garden, I'm slowly learning new stuff and I really enjoy it. So everything would be great and fine and rainbows and ponies, except there's one small thing that has been niggling away at me - the fact that I really like my coach. Like, really like my coach. In fact, I have a massive crush on him.

I feel like a hormonal 13 year old whenever I'm around him/thinking about him. Which probably has something to do with the fact that I haven't had a crush on someone since I was about 13, so I'm probably using that as my point of reference for how I should deal with this emotionally.

While I'm admitting to all this embarrassing stuff, I might as well throw in that I also even had a look on google for tips on getting over a crush, but they all said the same thing: Distance yourself from said crush. At least ten miles. Preferably while wearing blinkers and treating their name like an unholy swear word.

Which is all well and good, but distancing myself from my coach would mean giving up trampolining. Which I really don't want to have to do, because I love it.

So, TL;DR - I have a ridiculous crush on my trampolining coach. What the fandango should I do?

[leavemealone]

Well I guess it all depends on how old the coach is, because your 18 now. Legally, you can date anyone you want. But I'm sure it would be weird if you started dating a 40 year old. But if not, then you just have to remind yourself that its just a little crush. Its going to go away eventually once you find someone else that you feel even stronger for and is around your age. Don't worry too much about it

[DragonRider]

Ah, yeah. I forgot to mention that he's 27 and married with a child - about as out of bounds as you could possibly get.

Yeah, I guess so. I suppose I just feel uncomfortable knowing that I feel this way and not being able to do anything about it. Thanks for replying! <3

[PSY]

Well, you can't help how you feel... but you can control how you react to your feelings. So the way I see it, you can do one of two things:

1. Find another trampolining club.

2. Keep going to this club and deal with the feelings.

There have been times when I haven't wanted to go to parties/events because I didn't want to be around a certain person. I regret all those times when I passed up on a fun opportunity because of one stupid person! So you need to ask yourself if dealing with some awkward feelings is worth the benefit of going trampolining with your friend. If it's not worth it, find another club to join, so you can keep having fun without experiencing those feelings of awkwardness. Whatever you do, though, don't let this crush completely stop you from doing the things you love! You can't live life that way, always running away from uncomfortable situations.

[DragonRider]

In my mind, option 2 is the only option. I'd be leaving too much behind if I left this club; I've got great friends there and, actually, I do really like being around him. He and I get on really well and I don't act like a doe-eyed idiot around him, so I'm fairly sure he has no idea how I feel about him. And it's not unbearably awkward; I just feel a bit...fluttery? Does that make sense?

Still, you make a good point. Thanks for your input <3