Between the ages of nineteen and twenty-one, you’ll encounter few relationships worthwhile.  Little chemistry and genuineness guised by one-nighters and alcohol and claiming your someone your not.

                Because nothings ever as good as it seems, and often times, hedging your bet is the only means of survival.

                Ask them their collegiate concentration and assume it.

                Ask them their favorite color, sports franchise, movie- assume that as well.

This will keep the average human being satisfied for quite some time, relying solely upon a primordial drive to reproduce and relish in companionship if only for a few minutes of the old “in-out, in-out.”  Because in all likelihood, with meaningless banter, questions posed for answers never sought, you can learn more about a person in two minutes of intercourse than you ever could on a first date. 

Then after years of fraudulent identities:

Calvin, Environmental-Journalism, age 23

Katie-Joe, bull-hearted girl from the south, age 19

Aaron, tourist with a heavy British accent, age 25

                like a hair-coloring addict, you’ve lost touch.  They don’t know you’re just some community college reject desperate for release.  Bonded to social statues, a tragic story, a one-bedroom loft above the Laundromat.

                And no matter what anyone will tell you, nobody prefers the truth.  They want the fairy-tale, not the parable.  They want to remember you as the starting quarterback.  The cheerleader.  The heir to the Arizona Ice Tea empire.

                So ignore him the next morning.

                Forget her name and delete the entry from your phone.

                None of it really matters.

                Because nothing is ever as good as it seems, and often times, who you were the night before is not who you are right now.

But wait!

Before you know it you’ll be extinguishing twenty-one candles from a store-bought cake, headed for the bar and the life you always thought you wanted- single men and women and drinking and “would you like to see my place?”

You’ll smile but you won’t be happy. 

You’ll learn and thing or two but feel no smarter.

                You’ll share your story for that particular night- a million-dollar yacht off the coast, Allen Touring and his bite from the Macintosh apple- but no one will really listen.

                Then finally, it will happen.  The butterflies’ fluttering.  An alien sense of insecurity not felt since High School.  As you’ll gaze across the room at-

Calvin, Environmental-Journalism, age 23

Katie-Joe, bull-hearted girl from the south, age 19

Aaron, tourist with a heavy British accent, age 25

                you’ll be reminded of your susceptibility to deception- you have, afterall, been a vessel for years, duping people into loving you from one night to the next.

                But this time will be different.  You won’t be able to explain why but you’ll trust them without ever having to say a word.  That “love at first sight” notion will quietly creep into your mind.  You’ll experience weightlessness.  Find god in her dimples, his smile.

                And for once you’ll know that there are things in this world that are as good as they seem.