The aphorism ‘plenty of fish in the sea’ is often used to console those going through breakups that there’s an abundance of other people with whom they could pursue a relationship. But when your dating pool is a finite one, only about eight hundred students — most of whom you’ve known since you learned how to read — options for potential partners can feel much more limited.

  “I know so many kids that I went to school with in kindergarten, and I feel like we’ve all kind of stuck together really tightly. I think especially in high school, it’s kind of hard to branch out and meet new people,” freshman Yen Vo said. “Mostly kids who have known each other for a while are dating, and outside of that, it’s just some kids from new schools.”

  Anonymous junior Maria shared a similar perspective, saying that the smaller student body creates a sense of limited choices for potential partners that makes students more hesitant to start relationships.

  “I definitely think that because our school is a lot smaller, everybody feels like there’s a lot less options and a lot less availability or flexibility to actually go and try to date other people,” she said.

  According to anonymous freshman Judy, this small dating pool also inspires a sense of enthusiasm or intrigue when new students are introduced to the community.

  “There’s definitely a ‘fresh meat’ aspect of it. A new person comes, or there’s hints of a new person coming, and I hear girls or boys talk about, ‘Oh, is she pretty? Is he hot?’ That’s definitely something that is brought up,” Judy said.

  The defined social circles present in Piedmont also create an attitude of nervousness regarding branching out beyond one’s established group of friends.

   “With people who have bigger friend groups, I feel like there’s more pressure to date someone specifically. I’ve seen in some groups, if everyone is paired up and there’s one couple that’s not really together, they’re often pressured to be together because everyone else is,” Vo said.

  Sophomore Joshua Bell said that while these groups might not be so exclusive as to be considered ‘cliques’, he also observes the majority of couples in his grade as being made up of members of the same few circles.

  “It’s not necessarily cliquey, but it’s [specific] social groups that end up dating each other. So if you end up breaking up with a person, it’s a lot more uncomfortable [and] awkward,” Bell said. “In my grade at least, there’s several friend groups that kind of end up dating a lot with a different friend group.”

  The familiarity students have with each other due to Piedmont’s small-town culture also leads to them developing reputations that might influence potential romantic relationships, according to senior Dash Waters-Worthen.

  “I think in Piedmont, just one thing that you do or how you are in one certain grade can totally have an effect, and people can judge you because of one thing you did or how you were before you completely changed and became a different person,” Waters-Worthen said. “I think that the main problem with Piedmont from a social aspect is [that] nobody’s really able to reinvent themselves.”

  Interactions between grade levels also significantly influence who students consider as possible significant others. According to the U.S. News & World Report, each class year at PHS contains only approximately 200 people.

  “I think it varies, but I think that people tend to date people more in their own grade [because] that’s where they know the most people,” Maria said.

  While the differences between grade levels may minimize who students seek out relationships with in some cases, Judy said that she sees them as encouraging interest for younger students in people who they might see as being more emotionally developed, even though they may not necessarily share connection points such as classes or grade-level activities.

  “Once you hit high school, you get to see people of a different maturity and then you see somebody who’s in a grade above you or a grade above that, and you see them being mature, being able to handle emotions differently, and I think there’s a certain appeal when you see somebody act in that way,” Judy said.

  The pressure to pursue romantic relationships extends beyond schoolwide gatherings, however. Vo said that she observes attitudes among the student body of dating as integral to their larger high school experiences, as well as a cultural shift towards beginning to date at increasingly younger ages.

  “A lot of people feel like if they don’t date, then it’s like they’re missing out, almost, which is not true at all,” Vo said. “High school is so much more than that, in my opinion, but I feel like a lot of people make it out to be that, like, you need to have a high school sweetheart.”

  On the contrary, Maria said that although she sees ‘hooking up’ as popular among Piedmont students, Piedmont’s small population means that there is less investment in long-term relationships or students approaching those they’re less familiar with.

  “It’s kind of interesting because there’s definitely a hookup culture in every place,” Maria said. “But then also, I feel like people just don’t like to be committed. Since everybody knows each other, people are kind of scared to try new people, since they feel like they already know them, when in reality, they haven’t really gotten to know people.”

  Social media and digital communication have become integral aspects of how students interact with each other and develop relationships, according to Waters-Worthen.

  “I think that social media is a huge part [of dating] because thinking just about our parents’ generation, they were not able to text, or — I mean, they could call, but they would both have to be home at the time right? There was really no such thing as social media at all,” Waters-Worthen said.

  Despite the opportunities for connection that social media provides, Bell said that it can also serve more negative functions, such as to signal when relationships have ended or to anonymously share gossip.

  “There’s many times where it’s like, oh, a person took down all their posts about their boyfriend or whoever, so [you know] they broke up, or kind of the misinformation or just general information that gets spread, and then that’s a rumor and all that,” Bell said.

  Vo said that gossip is very prevalent among the school community when conversing in-person as well, especially with respect to couples, due to intrigue surrounding dating and the small-town effect of everyone being at least vaguely familiar with their fellow students.

  “Everyone will always have something to say regardless of who you are, and I think with anyone, being in a relationship, people are always gonna have some kind of view and talk about it,” Vo said. “Gossip and spreading rumors and things like that, I think [are] pretty common in our community specifically.”