The Ugly Truth

If there's one thing I learned while living in the city it's that everyone wants what everyone else has. You get up early in the morning to get the worm, so to speak, so you can have that "other" thing. The thing that everyone else seems to have that you don't. And you strive and you stress just to get it. (Whatever "it" is.)

I had drinks with an old friend the other night. We were discussing the finer points of life in the country versus the ins and outs of city living. Since I last saw her she has birthed a couple kids and a nice little mortgage. Meanwhile, I traveled the world, partied my brains out and started a business. Our lives couldn't be more opposite.

Then we got down to details: I told her how I've learned that according to the country folk, a girl my age hasn't lived life yet until she's gotten married. (As if that's the only thing she can do!) And she told me how she runs off to the city for a few days, sans the kids, every chance she gets. I was starting to think that I had it all wrong: I had partied and traveled my marrying days away. And here she was telling me that she wished she had more chances to live the single life.

Maybe it's time to cut that greener grass?

In any case, I will still be getting asked by everyone and their cousin why I'm not married yet. And she will still be grasping at her chances to live the single life again. It's the ugly truth. And it followed me from the big city to the back roads of the country. Everyone wants what everyone else has. Even in the sticks.