A couple months ago I entered the New York Times Modern Love Essay Contest for college students. The deal was if you won, you would be contacted by “mid-April” and if you didn’t, you wouldn’t hear jack shit. I didn’t expect to win or even come in second, let’s be real here. So when April 15th came and went and I heard nothing, I wasn’t surprised or terribly disappointed. I stretched out the idea of “mid-April” for a few more days and when I still hadn’t heard anything by April 20th or so, I picked up the shattered pieces of my life and moved on.
This morning, I sifted through the paper for a little while before realizing that today was the day the winner’s essay would be published. When it hit me, I pushed aside “Is Urban Violence a Virus?” and scrambled through the many sections of the Sunday Times until I found it: “The College Essay Winner: It’s a Complicated Subject.” I read the blurb and finally got to the winning essay: “Want to Be My Boyfriend? Please Define.” Lame title, I thought, but then again, so was mine. No matter, I had been looking forward to this for awhile and I was genuinely excited to read the essay – selected out of over 1,200 others, it had to be good.
Long story short, I was disappointed. I was expecting a piece that would make me think, make me see things in a different light, make me question the very essence of my being – okay, not quite, but something that would cause a reaction, any reaction, other than, “…wait. Huh?!”
I don’t want to influence you too much with my reactions to the article, at least not until after you’ve read it, so I’ll hold off on divulging my full opinions until later. However, I am extremely interested in what you guys think of it. Feel free to praise it/bash it/love it/hate it in your comments below. Here’s the link, go crazy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/fashion/04love.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
2 responses so far ↓
1 Ben Goldfarb (bgoldfarb09) // May 5, 2008 at 12:18 am
Yeah, not quite sure what the point of her essay was, other than to demonstrate that the author, uh, gets around. It was an entertaining read, I guess, but a pointless one. Well, better luck next time around, Liv.
2 caravan70 (dpshupe92) // May 6, 2008 at 1:56 am
It’s a well-written essay, but it sort of goes against everything I believe in. I’ve never had a problem with a casual hookup, but I do think a person should settle down after a reasonable period of time. My parents have been married since April of 1960, and as far as know they’ve had no issues of infidelity, but it seems to me that what I want is that kind of loyalty, and I am not sure how a dating culture like we have today fosters that.
I’m a bit older now, and sure, I like to get laid when I can. That said, I’d rather be in a committed relationship. Frankly, I believe the problem lies more with women today than with men. They’d rather play the field than settle down to something that might limit their options.
Just a few rather candid observations.
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