Spring is beginning. Can you feel it? I certainly do — not because I’m sneezing 24/7 or wearing skirts, but because every other person I see is paired up with a significant other.

On that note, I’d like to discuss games with all of you thinking about starting something with a cute guy or girl from your class. You know the kind. The cat-and-mouse game you start to engage in when you first begin talking to the person you like. You send them texts, you call, you Facebook message them — you carefully bait them in way that will help you decode what this person may think or feel about you.  There are those unwritten rules.

Girls should play hard-to-get and guys are coy or clueless, and the whole thing becomes a mess of pretenses. This may be the standard approach to get a feel for the situation, but quite frankly — I despise games, for the reasons mentioned above.

The main reasons this is so, is because I am a terrible actress, an awful liar, sincere and often blunt, so instead of baiting with a text, I rather just ask “Are you into me?” (Insert gasp here.)
I know my initial question is intense — and it could really backfire — but at least it’s to the point and I know where I stand. The way I see it: ambiguous signals are exhausting and the world does not end if one person doesn’t think of you as more than just a friend. The chase is fun, but eventually, analyzing every little thing said and done between the two of you is obnoxious. You’re friends are probably tired of hearing about it too.

If you think you may really like the person you are dancing around with, playing games may just cause you to miss an opportunity. Through games we simply confuse and frustrate a person that at the very least could become a friend. Why?

Once, a good friend of mine wisely said, “Be like water.” In other words, be transparent in what you think and feel because it is honest and down-to-earth. Though several magazines may disagree, it is silly and illogical to act like you’re too cool for the person you like in order to impress them.

That may be why the old cat-and-mouse game usually ends in a stalemate.