In less than a week, every Bobby First-Year and Susan Sociology-Major will don a disguise and for one night -- or two, or three -- become a different person entirely. Herds of sexy devils and Catholic school girls will descend upon Rugby Road. Posses of pimps and pirates will scour the Corner looking for booty.
Screw Christmas, Halloween is the favored holiday around this joint. Wearing masks creates mystery, and for a weekend, a little mystery can be fun. But once the pumpkins rot and the candy wrappers are left to blow in the wind, that little bit of mystery can become a trick rather than a treat.
It's intriguing when a man or woman emerges from the unknown and pops into your love life. Because in the University world of interconnected social webs, more often than not you're already well-acquainted with any person you become "better acquainted" with. Leaving your comfort zone of facebook friends and dating in a different dimension is exciting, enriching and perhaps even preferable -- but starting something with someone who is entirely mysterious can be downright spooky.
Par exemple: It's hard not to fall in love when the "Monster Mash" is playing in the background, Mario and Luigi are 3 and 0 on the beer pong table and a giant Qdoba burrito is waddling across the dance floor. Therefore, on one such All Hallows Eve Princess Leah was star struck the moment she laid eyes on a dashing Zorro brandishing a long, plastic sword. Cheesy pickup lines aren't suggested on a night like Halloween, they're required. So when Zorro shot a smooth "Nice buns, baby" in Leah's direction, she was sold.
Serendipity smiled upon the costumed couple, and soon they had a first date lined up. When Zorro pulled his black Bronco to a halt in front of Leah's front door, she couldn't help but grin. A drive through Charlottesville's fall foliage and two delectable Belair "Birdwoods" later, it was declared a perfect date.
Memories of the flirtatious afternoon soon faded into paranoia for young Zorro, however. He felt increasingly anxious about having such strong feelings for a woman he knew so little about. As far as he was concerned, Leah was from a galaxy far, far away; a galaxy he wasn't ready to explore without a little more information.
We're college students, and even though it may not happen until the wee hours, researching is what we do. We research for papers, for projects and for presentations. We research to find the best internship and job opportunities. We research for fantasy football and to decide upon the best option for a Friday night out. It's only natural that we often find ourselves researching potential relationships.
Luckily for our love lives, finding facts about a girl or guy interest is a lot more fun than sifting through a Virgo search on "The Development of the Dewey Decimal System." Background checking, as some might call it, is not hard to do in a collegiate environment. Social networks make it easy to do some quick conversational investigation. Calling up your fraternity brother, first-year hallmate, soccer teammate or fellow Sustained Dialoguer can be the first step in figuring out who you may know who knows what you need to know about a certain someone. And when it can't be heard through the grapevine, facts can be found with a click of the mouse through a facebook account or, if you're desperate, a Google search.
Basically, if you have a little bit of time and detective skill, it's not difficult to take the mystery out of your man, or the wonder out of your woman. You can find out what they do, where they've lived and who else they've dated all within a night of procrastination.
If all this behind-the-scenes investigation sounds creepy/borderline sketchy to you, you're not alone and may actually have achieved a level of maturity that would make Mom proud. Mom knows best, and she would probably cringe at the thought of all this Sherlocking around. She would tell you about how back in her day you discovered the details about another person through dates, phone calls and polite conversation.
Okay, all that might be a bit antiquated, but there's something to be said for the "old-fashioned way." For one, background checking is often misleading. Relying on a combination of he-said/she-said, first-year lore and facebook profile for your research wouldn't do much for a paper grade, and doesn't always get you ahead in the dating game either. The best way to get the answers you're looking for is to talk, ask and listen. Judgments should be reserved until facts present themselves as words or actions, from the person herself. And yes, watching it all unfold might be a little scary or unbalancing at times, but who doesn't like a little chill now and then?
Megan and Meghan's column runs bi-weekly on Tuesdays. They can be reached at fanale@cavalierdaily.com and moran@cavalierdaily.com.
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