Please be patient with me. I am a college professor and have a situation with a student . Long story short. This student frequently stops by my office for chit chat. First, I didn't think much of it but then I slowly started developing a crush on him. I know that's wrong and so I have been working to distance myself from this student but it's getting out of hand. In fact I asked this student to keep details about his personal life out of our discussion. So, the other day he is in my office and he goes like " I know you don't want to know about my personal life but I am getting married soon.. blah blah". And something tells me he probably knows I have a crush on him because any time he mentions his girl friend or shows me a picture of her, I act indifferent and kinda upset.

Considering the fact that my feelings are not going away, things like this have started affecting me.

How do I handle this? After I have explicitly asked him not to talk about something he choses to do it anyway. What makes this whole situation incredibly hard is that this particular student has been showering me with compliments both in class and in my office and in the evals. First I thought it was just for grades but that's not the case. He genuinely appreciates my teaching.

So, I am planning to ask him to limit office visits unless he has an academic question. Although this may sound harsh, I believe I need to do this for my own sanity. Any thoughts? I am sure he will be quite upset if I said this but I can't see how else I can prevent him from chit chat.

Please no negative comments. I believe some of this is my fault because I have been encouraging office visits and I am trying hard to shut him down..

We are all humans and the I can't help developing a crush. I am young prof in my 20's. But I am always very professional in my behavior though. It's all just in my head. end of rant

how do I distance myself from him without being harsh and abrupt? It looks like this is one student who doesn't take the hint.