College

Here is a little story I wrote a couple of years ago as I was getting ready to graduate college and move on to the next part of my life.  It's very heavy with figurative language, so try to keep up.  Hope you enjoy it.

Loved and Lost: College Graduation

College is a girl. In a nutshell, you meet her, fall for her, have a hot relationship a few years and then all of a sudden, it’s over. She leaves when she thinks you’re ready for the next step. She’s prepared to move on, but what about you? It almost always ends on her terms. There are a few guys who leave on their terms after three years and there are others who drag it out for almost a decade trying to hang on to her as long as possible, even though the last couple years aren’t as fun as the first few. This is the story of every the essential educational experience.

It starts out with you at the bar, checking out every girl in the room. You look at the pack of girls to your immediate left, you check out the ones on the other side of the bar; you give it a good 360, ending with a lap around the place to see if there’s anything – rather, anyone – that you may have missed. Eventually you cut out the really big ones, the artsy hipsters, the trashy townies and teensy weensy chicks. This helps you narrow it down to the cute to really hot girls you’ve got a shot with.

Next you consult your buddies and put several feelers. You get good vibes from a couple and spend the next part of the evening determining your chances at success with each of them. You weigh hotness with smarts, and long shots vs. sure things. Finally you commit and pick the best one for you. You take her on one date and fall in love, but you won’t be able to see her until autumn.

At first, she seems like a lot to handle, but you immediately fall in love. She makes you drink and smoke more than you ever have but she also makes it so much fun you don’t care that you’re letting yourself go a bit. She thinks beards are cool and doesn’t mind when you wear sweats or if you have on the same t-shirt three days in a row. She thinks hats make you look sexy and she’s gives you a free shirt every time you do something cool. It gets better; she loves video games, can’t get enough of them. Don’t even get me started on how many DVDs she wants you to watch.

By the time you leave her to go home for the holidays, you’re friends from home say she’s changed you. But half of them have started dating a girl too and they’re a bit different themselves. Each of your friends think that they’re girl is the greatest and you all trade stories, one-upping each other the whole time you’re home.

The whole time you’re together, you know it won’t last forever. You see things coming to an end, but when the breakup finally happens it crushes you. You had a good run, four, maybe five years. But she grabbed your heart from the time you saw her at the bar a while before you started dating.

Some of your friends will chase after her older sister and date for a year or two, but it’s never the same and the time you spent with her you’ll remember forever. She’ll still let you visit on weekends every year or so for a little fling, but as you get older, she takes more and more out of you until you can’t bare to visit anymore.

It takes a while to get over her for most guys. The deeper you were in love, the longer it takes to move on. Me? I thought I would chase her forever and sometimes I think about her older sister. I’m getting better now. I’m not as consumed with her as I used to be, but then again, it’s the summer and we usually took some time apart then. It always gets worse once fall comes around. Leaves start to change colors and drop and you remember how she changed you when you dropped everything you were doing to be with her.

Was she one of the great ones? Of course. She was the great one. The one that taught you how to love, taught you how to live, taught you how to have fun. She introduced you to your mentors, many other girlfriends, your best friends and maybe even your wife.

-Jesse