I went to college with a guy who was one of the few friends I had. Decent chap, tall, had an average face, never really had any interest in women or at least he didn't show. However, in the final year of our graduation, he made a drunken mistake of proposing to the class slut over text. I could never figure out why he did that, perhaps the bottled up urge of being with a woman took over. Naturally, the girl went around showing it to everyone and they called him a creep. He was ashamed and became an even bigger introvert from that point onwards. All these years I imagined him to be leading a lonely, frustrated life.

However, I stumbled across him after almost 7 years in an airport. He was a completely different guy, he was much more confident, had a great job and was at peace with himself. He told me that those events in college had made him contemplate and see the futility behind pursuing a woman and structuring your life around the idea proscribed by society. He said that he never faced any dilemma after that and he focused on improving himself. He has become the sort of guy whom most women would kill for and yet he leads an almost ascetic lifestyle outside of his work and plans to retire by the age of 40 and go to Tibet and other spiritual centers around the world. This encounter jolted me and I now hope that I can be in his shoes someday