The Dating Game

If you're ever at a party and its getting a little dull, one surefire way to peak everyone's interest is to yell out "Hey guys wanna play a game?!"

The response? "Hell yes!" Why? Because games are fun. A good game can forge lifelong friendships between strangers. Who cares about surrounding yourself with people who share your values and have similar likes and dislikes. Very overrated. What I need is someone who can correctly interpret my frantic scribblings in a heated game of Pictionary! I need someone who knows how to catch my phrase! And I especially need someone who knows that there is no musical called "Fiddler on a Hot Tin Roof", lest we have another repeat of the Scene It Fiasco of '08... Deborah.

Still it was fun. Why? Because it was a game. No hard feelings. No resentment. No loss of self-esteem. Everyone could rest easy. I would not be bringing "baggage" to the next trivia game night.


Another kind of game is sports. Take soccer for example. I love soccer. I've played since I was eight. Over the years I've grown taller, stronger, faster, better. Of course so did everyone else, hence why I'm in business school and not playing professionally. Still, I continue to play for recreation because its fun. I love the rush I get from winning. And though it could be pretty devastating to lose, it was never so devastating that a "suicide" soda and chili cheese fries from the snack stand couldn't rectify. Or now, a cold beer.

And after I lose a match I never think to myself, "I never want to touch another soccer ball as long as I live! I hate soccer!! Why is soccer so darn hard to figure out?! What am I doing wrong?"


Which brings me to another so-called "game", The Dating Game. The Dating Game as far as I can tell really isn't a game at all. Games have rules. Maybe the dating game has rules, and I just don't know them. In which case, where is our governing body?? There's the National Football League and the National Basketball Association. Where's the National Dating Association?! I need rules. Instead I get nothing. No coach. No ref. No halftime huddle. No cool jersey with my last name on the back. And to add insult to injury, I don't even get a snack and Capris Sun at the end of it all. I just go home. Defeated, bitter, and all the more confused.

So if not a game, how could we describe this enigmatic world of dating? Enigma...conundrum... mystery... Eureka!!

"The Dating Puzzle"

Puzzles are a kind of game, right? They're somewhat fun to do, at least initially. And much like dating, a puzzle really has no rules except to start with the edges first, then the sides and then work your way to the middle hoping that it gets easier along the way. What's annoying is when you think you're getting close to finishing and you realize you're missing pieces or there are random pieces from from a different puzzle mixed in.

Many a puzzle has been started but never finished, because of some of reasons some mentioned above. Missing pieces, lack of time... Or the actual puzzle wasn't quite looking like the picture on the box, so you moved on. And ever notice that you'll rarely go back to complete a puzzle you started years before. Even if you tried to gently place completed sections back into the box, they always come apart and you still feel like you're starting from scratch.

But if you've got all of the pieces, help from your family and friends, time to devote, and you're willing to walk away and come back with fresh eyes and a better attitude, you can enjoy that sense of fulfillment/relief one only gets from completing a puzzle with many little pieces.

I know what you're thinking:

TA DAA!!! Its the picture on the box!! No great surprise there, I know.

But that's how dating is. Hopefully most of us already know what a good relationship looks like. We're just waiting for it to look like the picture on the box.