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Notes -
My high school was relatively packed at 2500+ students, I never got the chance to know most of them. I had about 5 or 6 classes and different people each semester, so YMMV. For guys, there's always a fresh crop of freshman girls for the incoming class each year. There were at least 3 junior high schools feeding into my high school.
I agree high school isn't great, but the alternative is college with no practice or hard lessons learned before that. College for me was a "whew, this is a chance to start fresh" opportunity that I did much better in after applying the failures in high school. Sexual access for men is competitive, why hamstring ugly sons for no reason.
Maybe I’m a romantic but I find it a little sad if you don’t get the magical experience of a spark spontaneously forming between you and a classmate you’re sitting next to, doing what you can do group projects with them, and stumbling on a romance that way. Your first romantic experience should be one without practice, with butterflies in your stomach, awkwardly holding hands for the first time, leaning your head on their shoulder, both of you discovering everything for the first time together. You can’t get that with someone that’s just flirting practice, like you can’t pick the first person you fall in love with.
Early romances like you describe, which start out fiery but often end quickly are exactly the kind of experience you can't get while being homeschooled until college. It's practice in romance. Separately, flirting practice is important too.
There are also fiery romances in college, but the expected social knowledge about romance is higher as everyone is older and usually more experienced. Women can get away with being completely inexperienced, in fact many men prefer an innocent maiden. Inexperienced men are just seen as clumsy, like a partner leading a dance who keeps stepping on your foot and elbowing you in the face.
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