EDITOR’S NOTE: This column is the third in a four-part series about behaving on and around campus. The final column will run in the Dec. 3 edition.My mother spent a lot of her time trying to raise a good Southern belle. Seeing how I’m as much my father’s daughter as I am hers, she definitely had her work cut out for her. I didn’t quite turn out to be a prim debutante who loves to host teas and never raises her voice, but Mama managed to at least instill a good sense of how to act in public and a respect for other people. My November columns are dedicated to those classmates who weren’t quite so lucky.A lot of people are unsure just how to act on a first date. People get unnecessarily nervous about something that should be fun, and anxiety doesn’t usually turn people on. Consider this a short list of do’s and don’t’s to help you have the best date you possibly can, not make a fool of yourself and even act like someone most people would want to go out with again (unless you just have a horrible, horrible personality — you will need a serious trust fund to get someone to go out with you a second time if that’s your situation). Speaking of cash money…1.  Guys, offer to pay for stuff. It’s just the classy thing to do. If she says, “Oh, no, let me get it!” or, “Hey, let’s split it!” then feel free to take the out and not make a big deal about it.And ladies, don’t offer to do either if you’re not prepared to follow through. If you offer to pay and he takes you up on it, you have no right to gripe to your friends about how he didn’t understand some stupid unwritten code where there must be X amount of back and forth before you finally give in and “let” him pay.2.  Guys should try to open doors whenever possible, but they don’t need to sprint to every door to make sure they get them all. If you get to the door in time to open it for her, congratulations, you nabbed some brownie points. If not, there will always be more doors. Girls, always thank a guy who opens a door for you — anytime, anywhere. And if you don’t want men opening doors for you, just say so — in the least bitchy way possible. If they keep doing it anyway, then you can be a bitch.3.  Don’t talk about yourself the entire time or your favorite (insert person, place or thing here). Oh, your dad is Rambo? And he’s killed like 345 people? And he lives in a tree house with his sidekick who’s a walrus named Wilford? Neat. Glad I got to hear about that for 45 minutes.4.  Don’t answer your phone unless it’s really important or you need to fake an emergency to escape your date with Ted Bundy. The same rule applies to texting. 5.  Make plans ahead of time. There are few things more awkward than meeting up with someone and having that “What do you wanna do? — I dunno, what do you wanna do? — I dunno, what do you wanna do?” conversation for 30 minutes.6.  Don’t get too personal on a first date. It’s not time to swap stories on how many people you’ve slept with or the car wreck that killed your best friend in 11th grade. Wait until things are a little serious before you tell someone your deepest, darkest secrets.7.  It’s 2009. You can kiss on the first date.Those rules aren’t so hard, are they? Now get out there and date the pants off each other, LSU student population.Sara Boyd is a 22-year-old general studies junior from Baton Rouge. Follow her on Twitter @TDR_sboyd.—-Contact Sara Boyd at [email protected]