1EQQ8ZzGD

dating and relationships
How do boys feel about girls
who don't expend much effort
on appearances (e.g., clothes,
makeup)?
Lex Cooke
When I was about five years old, I used to like eating tuna
fish salad for lunch. I didn't know how to make tuna salad;
my mom had always made it for me, and I had always enjoyed
it. one day, I had a babysitter looking after me. It was lunch
time; she asked me what I wanted and I said, "tuna." It was a
fair enough request, so she began gathering ingredients. She
asked me what I wanted in my tuna salad, and I told her that
I liked it plain.
This is when things started to get weird.
"So no celery or anything?" She asked.
"no, just plain."
She was a little puzzled but went along. "So just the mayo
and tuna?"
At this point, I didn't understand what she wasn't getting
about my request; it seemed pretty simple to me. "no, literally
just the tuna on a plate is fine," I told her (probably didn't use
the word "literally" at age five, but just go with it).
now she was really confused. "So, you want the tuna,
straight out of the can . . . like a cat?"
At this point, I just stared at her, blankly, for a moment.
I had never owned a cat. I had no idea what they ate. I knew
I certainly wasn't a cat. And what was this business about a
can? I just wanted lunch. "err, uhh, yeah . . . that sounds right."
She shook her head a little and then proceeded to dump
a can of tuna fish onto a plate and placed it in front of me on
the kitchen table. I looked down at my lunch. It looked disgusting.
I looked up at her. She looked back at me with a mix
of curiosity and bewilderment.
For better or worse, it was in this moment that my mom
got home and walked into the kitchen. I won't take you
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