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By Alex O'Sullivan, August 16, 2010 6:30 am

Image by deutscher13 via Flickr

All right, I’ll admit it… I’m into the bad boys. The kind who never lets you know where you stand, who turns his soulful eyes on you months after you’ve broken up, who runs things on his schedule and never yours.

I’ve played the games and alternately loved and hated them, sometimes playing better than the boys and sometimes playing worse. I’ll let them tug on my heartstrings, even if it hurts, just to know that someone sees me. So I don’t have to be alone.

But someone came along who convinced me to stop the games. And it’s a girl, not a boy. My little sister, in fact. I’ve watched her let the same boy walk over her, time and again. And each time, I get so very angry. How can someone treat her like that? Doesn’t he see how beautiful she is? He doesn’t deserve her, so why would she let him do that to her?

It was this line of thinking that led me to see that I can’t blame her for letting him, when I do the exact same thing. How can I expect my sister to respect herself when I won’t respect myself?

She went off to her first year of college last fall, and she’d sit around in the dorm, “just in case he called”… which he only did once a week. She couldn’t spend time with other boys, because that would be almost like cheating… when he could call up her best friend and ask her to come spend the night at his house.

She used to be vivacious and outgoing, with plans with friends almost every night. Now, she holes up in a little dark room watching movies on her computer because, if she can’t hang out with him, she can’t hang out with anyone, and most of the time, he doesn’t want to hang out with her. Continue reading 'Me And Bad Boy McGee'»

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By Kat Fenn, July 15, 2010 8:00 am

Photo by Lutz-R. Frank via Flickr

I don’t consider myself a saccharine person, but one thing I wouldn’t mind having a little bit sweeter is my family. We get together on holidays and birthdays, but there’s always a lot of dead air. Dead air, as in someone just sucked all the oxygen out of the room, leaving only panicked expressions on our faces.

It doesn’t help that my family has dwindled down to around ten people. Here’s a social math rule: the more people there are to spread out an awkward situation, the less awkward it becomes for each individual.

I love my family and appreciate the time we have together, even if it’s not what I always hoped I would have. Still, I was never able to get past my older brother’s aloofness. We’re six years apart, and we had what I’d describe as a less-than-average childhood. We both made it through extreme medical crises, but not even those brought us any closer. Now that we’re adults, I still don’t understand why he doesn’t want to associate with me.

I’ve tried joking with him, engaging him in conversation, and even asking his girlfriend to hang out. I got what could be best described as robotic replies, blank stares, and insincere offers of help when I need it. At his wedding, I hugged him and told him I loved him… to which he replied, “I know.”

You know?!

“You know” things like you need to eat your vegetables, pre-treat stains, vacuum more often, and floss every day. Continue reading 'I Can’t Make You Love Me, So Why Am I Here?'»