Summary: Applied TRP philosophy, slept with my oneitis' cousin. If someone says you've changed, chances are it's because you have. Use that to your advantage.

Body: First month of college, me and a friend are rushing fraternities. I go to a Big10 school so football and tailgates are huge, a lot of chapters have their own events to find kids to rush. Met a dude in my dorm, turns out we're from the same country (we're both foreign, studying in USA), rushed around together. Went to a tailgate, enjoying ourselves, getting drunk at 10am with our new friends, shit's fun. Three girls (Megan, Alex & Ally) come to our tent, one of them was the SO of one of my now-brothers from the house. Me and my friend meet the other two girls; let's call them Megan and Alex. Megan goes here, Alex is her cousin studying in state but a different school. Alex is clearly interested in my friend, so I go along with Megan.

I thought Megan was awesome, she's smart, into cars etc, the whole idea of a "unicorn". You can probably see where this is going, keep in mind this was way before TRP. So subsequently I pull all the BP shit you can think of, just thinking back makes me cringe.

We "stayed friends" until the end of my freshman year, grabbed coffee a few times last semester and that was that, I realized I was not going anywhere with this girl so I just gave up, cut contact. On Wednesday I posted something funny on Snap, out of the blue she texts me about it so we talk a bit, then asks to get coffee with her on Thursday. I decided fuck it, and after my classes ended we met in front of my apartment and walked to Starbucks. I realized I was hungry so we got food, knowing her habits I did not pay for a single thing (wonder why she took so long at Starbucks, hmm ). After food we got back on campus, said our byes and she drops the "you've changed". Basically said "deep down I can see the old you but if I were just meeting you I'd think you're a shitty person". I brush it off; Friday Megan, Alex and a few of their friends see me working on my car and stop by. Megan invites me to go out with them, told her I was going out with my boys but Saturday night could work. Come Saturday, she texts me to go out, one of my boys were tending at the bar they were at so I figured, cheap drinks why not? At that point, I only “know” Megan, I’ve met the other girls once or twice but that was it. The third girl, Ally, from last year and my boy broke up – Megan straight up says “it’d be so funny If you got with Ally”, I tell her he’s still my boy and I won’t. After that I acted like Megan wasn’t there, made small talk to Ally but my focus was on Alex. Closing time comes, we’re still hanging out with Alex and Megan is losing her shit, kept frame and on our back from getting food, Megan says to come to her apartment for post-game. I said I had a bottle in my apartment that we can pick up, Alex “decides” to come with, shook off Megan and others. You can figure out what happened later.

Lessons Learned

  • Hold frame. Pretty sure Megan told all my cringey behaviours to Alex, but that didn’t stop me from acting like I believed she had no knowledge. Kept it “cool, calm, collected” or “300” in the words of rappers.

  • Know your boundaries, make it known. Had I gave in to Megan’s badgering I probably never would’ve had the chance to properly talk to Alex.

  • If someone says you’ve changed, it’s probably because you have. After Alex said all that stuff I realized I don’t really care if I “lose” her, so I didn’t pay too much attention. I know TRP has changed me in all aspects. If someone close to you says this though do think back; if one of my boys said this in a bad context I probably wouldn’t have typed this long ass post.

  • Make it fun for yourself. I like coffee, decided seeing someone from my past would either go okay or terribly. Said fuck it, realized it’s not as bad so told her I’d be getting food instead of going back to my place directly after; one thing led to another. Ended up having a fun time seeing my boys, not being sober for a good chunk of my weekend, and had something to tell in chapter because my pledge class knows my history with that girl and it was a running joke last year (they told me I should drop her before she renamed me to “Free Food” on her phone). Got awarded dumbass of the week so that was pretty chill too.