At this point in our lives, chances are most of us have had little crushes here and there, which means that all the weird, rollercoaster of emotions that come with having a crush must be pretty relatable. Is he looking at me? Is she going to text me back? Having a crush can be confusing, exciting, and heartbreaking all at the same time, but we have to admit that they’re fun nonetheless! Let’s explore these feelings in three simple stages.

First, developing the crush. You catch yourself looking at your crush in whatever class you share, and occasionally, you two make that all-too-awkward eye contact. You look away, blushing, angry at yourself for being a total weirdo. It’s the end of the world — you would rather hide under your bed sheets for the rest of your life than face your crush again. Instead of doing the homework that you must get done, you spend all of your free time stalking every social platform that exists, digging up every little detail you can find. You try to figure out your crush’s schedule, so you can “accidentally” run into him/her on your way to your supposed class in J-Building, risking the fact that you might be late to your actual class in H-Hall. Sophomore Renee Lotfy says, “I used to be late to my classes all the time because I was always trying to figure out what class my crush had. It was awful! But pretty fun too!”

Second, trying to figure out if your crush reciprocates your feelings. At this point, you’ve hopefully made some progress in getting to know him/her. Maybe you have a streak on Snapchat or you two talk in class together once in a while. You’re looking everywhere for some sort of sign that your crush feels the same way. Perhaps he/she walks you to your next class or is always looking for some sort of conversation starter with you. Or things aren’t going too well, and he/she texts back with messages that say “idk”, “lol”, or “cool”.

Finally, you are either in the process of getting together, or you’re trying really hard to get over your crush. If all went well, you’re feeling happier than ever like your heart is about to burst with happiness. You can’t believe your crush feels the same way and are so looking forward to updating your relationship status. The other way this rollercoaster ends is with you doing everything you can to throw your stupid crush out of your life. Your friends force you to delete phone numbers and friend requests and propose a night-out to get your mind off of him/her.

The end: the cycle of a crush completes one full circle. Whether you end up with a relationship or not, we can all admit that having a crush is always exciting. Getting nervous when you see your crush or being way too happy after receiving a text — these memories, as stupid as they seem to be, make up our teenage experiences. And with that, I wish you luck in all of your future crushes!