I ran into an old friend the other day. We caught up for a little bit and afterwards as I was walking home, replaying the conversation in my head, a quote came to me. To give you some background, I'm 24 years old and doing pretty well for myself. I graduated the top college in my state (that's not saying much) with a double major, I have a six figure job and I'm taking your advice, focusing my energy on building and investing in myself through my 20's to hit a nice stride by 28,29,30. Then it begins. She has just turned 30, single, good looking according to beta male standards.

I was sitting on the edge of an aisle in church and as I was walking to grab some water, she saw me and asked if I was leaving. I said no and she said ok we'll talk after church. I decided I wanted to try and just listen instead of talking about me or my ideas. 20 min later, service was over and we sat in the lobby and exchanged ‘how have you been, I didn’t know you go here’ chit chat. We moved to the Starbucks nearby and we started talking about her and her friends who were also 30 and single. She said it’s hard because there’s just no quality guys out there. Yeah..... I asked what qualities she meant. She stopped to think and did that thing where they try to look at the top of their eye sockets. Like you know when you double click with your mouse and that buffering symbol comes up, and does that spinny thing? I could see that over her head. She said, Sense of Humor, Solid Christian, Great job, Attractive, and Masculine. I said wow, that's a nice rainbow you're on. I mean I didn’t need to ask because I know what all women want even though most of them don’t. The Alpha Male.

I was about to ask how high up she must think she is if she has those expectations, especially with a declining SMV at 30. Instead, I said well conversely, there’s not exactly a ton of amazing girls around here either. She said yes there are. Who are attractive and have a good head on their shoulders? She then tried to list her friends, who by the way are a six out of ten. I thought, maybe she’ll take some advice. I humbly suggested something along the lines of making sure you’re the best version of yourself you can be because you’re going to be in the market competing against girls who are younger than you, with no student loans, and no dead end career path. She didn't take it well. She gave me a condescending smug little smile with raised eye brows through the whole thing like ‘you should stop now' like I was digging myself deeper. Ironically she’s the one digging herself deeper with every day that passes by; every day a little less desirable. I changed the subject and gave her some encouraging words about the job hunt, gave her a hug and left.

I asked myself WHY. Why do these people fight so hard against the very advice that solves all their lonely nights and crying themselves to sleep? What about increasing your value is sooo atrocious? I mean she has to know that given the choice, any guy would take a hot 22 year old over her. Its like supply and demand doesn't exist to these people; they have God’s iPad and can rearrange market value so there is no uglies or single 30-somethings. No, they're all equal.

Then it hit me: "The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."

15 years ago today. And growing more true with every minute.