The Game

Red Rover, Red Rover, send Stella right over. Marco. Polo! Red light. Green light! Tag, you're it. Ready or not here I come. Uno! Go directly to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.  As a child, games were fun. We could play them for hours on end and never tire, until someone gets mad or hurt. As an adult, people are still playing games. No, I'm not talking about playing Candyland here folks. I'm talking about the relationship game. Or should I say, the non-relationship game?

I thought being in my late 20's, people would just grow out of it. But I've found that it's almost worse than college and high school. Maybe I feel like it's worse because it's so unexpected at this age. At this age I find most people are settling down. They're getting serious, finding the ones they want to spend the rest of their lives with(or until they figure out it wasn't meant to be and end up in divorce). Sure, I've played the game before. And I've had games played on me. Don't hate the player, hate the game, right?  But at this age, aren't we just getting a little too old for game playing?

And by games I mean this: guy meets girl. Guy gets girl's number. Guy doesn't call girl until after 3 days. Guy finally calls(texts in this day in age) girl. Guy takes girl out. Guy doesn't call girl for another 3 days. Within these 3 days, guy is calling other girls. Hanging out with other girls. All the while girl is waiting by her phone. Turning her phone off and on to see if it's just her bad service. Bringing her phone into the bathroom when she showers just in case he calls. Gets disappointed when her phone finally rings and sees it's just her mother. Ignoring the other guy that's calling her that she should be talking to and making plans with because he's the good guy and is actually into her. But no, she wants the guy that makes her wait. The guy that acts like he's not into her. The one that plays hard because she's not the only one he's focused on. She wants the one that is the most challenging for her.

It's a proven fact. Girls love assholes. Girls don't usually go for the good guys. And the good guys just don't understand this. Why do girls love assholes so much? Being an asshole lover myself, I'll give you my insight:
Have you ever seen a chick flick that sounds like this: Guy meets girl. Guy and girl fall in love. The end. I'm gonna go with no. Most chick flicks go something like this: Guy meets girl. Guy is an asshole and the girl hates the guy at first. Some kind of conflict happens and the girl starts seeing the guy in a different light and the guy totally changes into her prince charming. Guy becomes totally head over heels for girl and tells her how he's never felt this way about anyone and how he couldn't live without her. Guy is somehow changed into a whole different person and no longer the asshole from the beginning of the movie. And they live happily ever after. The end.

Girls see something like this in every chick flick. Just look at The Ugly Truth, Failure to Launch, 27 Dresses, Catch and Release, I could go on forever. We want that asshole. That guy that's a challenge that plays games with us but that we think we can change into our perfect man. We want our own chick flick. Why would we want to go for the nice guy? The safe guy that's so easy for us to catch? When I go fishing, I want a huge bass, not a little guppy that always comes to my line. My arms might be tired after reeling it in, tugging and pulling at my pole, I might have to use some really nice bait, and I might have to use help from my friends to help pull my big bass out of the water, but by golly I want a really nice catch to brag about and to hang over my mantel and a good story of how I finally got this nice catch.

I'm sorry to all the good guys out there. Recently I have found myself liking the good guys more and more, but I'm a girl who doesn't live my life taking the easy path. I like a challenge. I feed off challenges. And assholes are challenging.

Assholes are challenging because they play the game. We want the guy who's not calling us. Not giving us too much attention. It may drive us crazy but it drives us to like the guy even more. And most assholes know this. They know how to play the game and they play it well. They are the Tiger Woods, the Derek Jeter, the Lebron James of playing the game. It's sad to think, but we probably wouldn't even like them as much as we do if they weren't playing games.

And to all those guys reading this out there, yes, I know girls can play the game just as hard. I've been there. Which I wasn't a player, I just crushed a lot. Two can play at these games. But when the game starts getting played hard, this is when someone usually gets hurt. And it almost always is the girl that ends up losing because we get way too emotionally attached.

After 28 years of life and about 15 years of that dealing with the assholes out there, I think I have come to the realization that I'm getting over the game playing. I don't find it fun anymore. I can't say I ever found someone playing games with my heart ever fun. I will probably always have that love for assholes and a challenge, but I'm just getting too old and too tired to keep up with it all anymore. Guess that's just me growing up.