Terrible People

First and foremost, I must apologize for not keeping up to date with my blog. It has been quite a while since my last blog post. I must confess that I cannot blame this fact solely on my being busy. That excuse has only been valid for the past week. That being said, here I am. In this post, I am taking the risk of writing about two different subjects that all come back to the same harsh reality: Terrible People are Everywhere.

Let's start with what Ben Wood has demanded that I blog about. Let's just say it has to deal with a passion that we share. This passion is a lack of good feelings (or possibly hatred, we'd really be splitting hairs though) toward fraternities, along with the ideas and ideals that they stand for. I have invested some thought into the root of my negative feelings, and have concluded that they are rooted in envy of those who are better off than I am, and general disliking of anything exclusive. Simply put, these guys are just tools. I understand that I am treading in territory that is full of stereotypes. However, I have only met one member of any fraternity EVER that has broken these stereotypes, and he is married now. Anyways, the most recent fuel for the hatred fire is an incident that occurred a couple weeks ago. The details are very sketchy, but what is implied is abhorred. A  17 year old girl was taken to the hospital with a blood alcohol level of .24 after having attended a party at the Pi Kappa Alpha (or Pike for short) Fraternity house. Now I have never attended a frat party, but the stereotypes that I have yet to see unproven would dictate that the young girl was offered alcohol upon entering the house without having her ID checked to show that she was of proper drinking age.

Now, I am aware that young people are idiots and think that underage drinking is cool, but I wonder how many "adults" (if by age only) saw this taking place and ignored it, or (heaven forbid) encouraged such behavior. The Pike president maintained in a statement that the fraternity was in now way responsible. She had a blood alcohol level of .24! She was close to death. I submit that there is NO WAY she could have entered the party already drunk, at least to that extent. Perhaps she wet her whistle before, but I don't assume that anybody goes into a party, dying of alcohol poisoning. I feel safe in assuming that she consumed a serious amount of alcohol AFTER she entered the house, at a party supposedly organized and supervised by responsible adults. One part of the previous statement is surely untrue. There is nothing responsible about distributing alcohol to anybody under the age of 21. Lest we forget, she was 17! She may very well still be in High School! I don't care how old you look, wouldn't somebody with a brain in their head be able to tell that she was under 21? Let's review a very important concept: If a girl is a freshman, or still in high school, you can be 99.5 percent sure that she is NOT 21.

Some people are billing the "friends" that took her to the hospital as heroes. It can be assumed that these same "friends" are the ones that let her get drunk to begin with. The only reason they are viewed as heroes is because they actually took her to the hospital as opposed to the soulless fiends who let Michael Starks die just down the street 3 years earlier at another fraternity house. Let's use an analogy to expound the point. If you stab somebody in the chest and miss their heart and they don't die quickly, are you a hero if you take them to the hospital? No! You are slapped with an attempted murder charge. If true justice existed in this world, anybody that aided in her consumption of alcohol should receive a similar charge. Unfortunately, none of the testosterone-motivated guys that got her drunk maintained their pair when asked details about the incident. They all cowered in their corner of secrecy and exclusivity, and complained when the university suspended their "fraternal leadership organization." The Pike president in his statement seemed to cry "yellow journalism" to draw attention from his yellow belly. Evading fault is what boys do, taking responsibility is what men do. For clearly and unequivocally separating the men from the boys, I thank President Christopher Walsh, said leader of the now unrecognized Pike fraternity.

As I mentioned before, there are two subjects to this post. The second hits me a little closer to home. It's about a girl. A silly, immature, heartless, unforgiving, inconsistent, fickle girl. Yep, I got turned down. However, this time it had a little more bite than usual. I have a long history of rejection from the girls of the world, usually after accepting several free movies and meals, only to inform me impatiently that they are not romantically interested in me. I must admit, it hurts less and less every time. This one was particularly fun.

Let's step back a year or so. This girl and I had a bit of a fling in late April of 2010. I thought I liked her at the time, but with impending finals week, we fell out of contact (admittedly my fault) and then I jetted off to Hawaii with 2 days notice right after finals week. I had a wonderful summer, returned, and talked to her occasionally over the next year. Fast forward to the beginning of this school year. We came into contact again, and on Saturday we went to the football game and left together, proceeding to go watch a movie together on a lovesac. That's all I really need to say, right? Good. So, I tried to hang out with her early this week, but we were both busy. Today, however, I had some free time and asked her if she wanted to go to lunch. We ended up settling on plans to go chat over ice cream. I had a time conflict come up, and it never happened. However, upon explaining this through a text, I got the following reply during my last class of the day. Remember, I had just asked if we could change the time for getting ice cream.

"Um, I don't think it would. I didn't want to say this via text, but looks like I don't have a choice. I'm not romantically interested in you. I'm not really interested in being friends either. You're a good guy, Tyler, but we just don't work or fit. I'm sorry for leading you on lately. I know it wasn't fair to you. Sorry."

In the tradition of Daniel Tosh's show, let's do a text breakdown, one sentence at a time. #1: You always have a choice to do something over text or not. Are you aware that your phone also functions wonderfully as a TELEPHONE? It's an archaic device used to speak vocally to other people via the microphone and speaker in your phone. Quaint, I know, but somewhat useful if you think about it. #2: This part is acceptable. She has every right not to be romantically interested in me. #3: Who says that they aren't really interested in being friends? What have I done to not even deserve the title of friend? #4: I like to think that I am a good guy, and I can understand that she doesn't think that we work or fit. I'm a guy, and she is a girl...that combination doesn't make much sense now does it. OH WAIT?!?...nevermind. #5: I believe that she is sorry for leading me on lately. That doesn't make it right. What the freak? We cuddle on Saturday, and I am no longer her friend on Wednesday. A total of 10 or so menial texts were sent in between. What happened? Since we aren't friends anymore, I will never know. #6: You're right, girl. It isn't fair to me. But what ever is when it comes to romance? It's a familiar game for me. I received a nearly identical rejection from a girl last winter. The only difference is SHE had the heart to tell me face to face. #7: Sorry. Yes, we're all a bit sorry for the terrible things we do.

Anyways, back to the story. In my act of defiance, I went onto Facebook to do the petty thing; to unfriend her. Upon logging on, however, I found that she had already taken care of that. Oh my! I have 300 some odd Facebook friends, the majority of which I never talk to. I don't even deserve the least personal designation above only one-time acquaintance that is Facebook "friend."  I don't think THAT'S fair to me. Whatever, have a nice life she-who-shall-henceforth-not-be-named.

Well, this has been an entertaining stream of consciousness for me. I took the opportunity to get a few things off my chest, and I feel better. I have not written off women, but rather have chosen to write off girls. There is a distinct difference. Girls do things like the girl that rejected me. They act immaturely and don't seem to care how their methods of rejection affect guys. Again, it's not the fact that she rejected me. It's HOW she went about it. I am still in the midst of a search for a real woman; one who will be honest, and make their feelings known without leading me on a wild goose chase for happiness. I envy my married friends who have found wonderful women, and maintain the hope that there is one out there for me. One thing is certain, this girl was not the woman I was looking for.

So yeah, it's not too hard to find terrible people in this world. Whether they aid in a near deadly experience for a young girl, or take advantage of a guy just looking for love. Either way, I maintain a belief that justice will prevail, and those with good intentions will come out on top. I strive to be one of them.