For junior Zoe Short, the ideal perfect date is a quiet, secluded vacation in Oscoda, Michigan.  

“It’s on the lake, and there are these little huts, and they’re all different colors,” she said.  

Short, a Social Work major, would use the nearly six-hour drive from Hammond to Oscoda to disconnect from the outside world and spend time with her boyfriend, Ryan.  

“Where me and my boyfriend are in our relationship now, we’re very settled in,” she said. “We’ve been together a couple years, and we’ve done all the concerts and all that jazz. So, a quiet, isolated vacation, where we could put our phones down for a couple days, would be the perfect date.” 

Her boyfriend recently landed a new job, that will require him to travel often.  

“With his new job … he’ll be gone for, like, 90 days at a time,” Short said. “It’s going to be a little different for me when I’ve spent every day with someone for the last two years.”  

The vacation would give them an important chance to spend time together, regroup and grow.  

“You should never stop dating your partner, even when you get married,” she said. “People are constantly changing, and what someone needed six months ago might not be what they’re needing now. It gives you that time to regroup and reconnect in a different way because when you really love someone, you don’t stop learning [about] them. 

“We were young when we started dating, so there were things that we did then that I don’t think we would do now,” said Short. “You learn and you grow from it, but that’s why you have to keep dating.”  

She also thinks privacy is important for couples. 

“Keep people out of your relationships,” she said. “That’s why I like the solitude of a little cabin with no cell service.”