But one thing I've noticed here is the emphasis that people tend to place on love around here. The most anticipated chapel of the year tends to be Gerard Reed's Valentine's Day message. 

       Several people seem to be here solely for the purpose of gathering the elusive MRS degree. Yes, we all revolve around love. Here's the sad part. It does't exist. 

       Now I don't mean that Christ-like love doesn't exist, otherwise we'd all be murdering each other for better sports in the Dining Hall line. 

       What I mean is that the whole notion of romantic love is just a cynical game perpetrated upon us by the greeting card companies and the media. 

       Here's how I envision the whole deal. Guys face a situation sort of like buying a car. A whole host of myriad, but mainly superficial factors go into determining "buying power". 

        But now there's another complication! The "car" can reject the "buyer"! And if the "buyer" doesn't play his cards right, he can never come close to the "car" again! He's a loser, he can't come back tomorrow, and he doesn't even get a lousy copy of the home game! 

        Now, of course, before everyone rushes to write the Point Weekly to tell them what a sexist pig I am (and other things that they already know), I placed the man in the "buyer" analogy since the man is typically the one to initiate the relationship. 

       Now, I don't know much about the female side of the equation, for obvious reasons, but I can imagine it's not much better. I imagine that it can get pretty lonely waioting in that car lot as all the showier models get driven off the lot. 

       Some of you may dismiss these as the bitter ravings of a frustrated man, and you probably wouldn't be far off. In "The Princess Bride", Prince Humperdinck told Westley, "You truly love each other, and so you might have been truly happy. Not one couple in a century has that chance, no matter what the storybooks say.", and that is exactly how I feel right now. I even think Humperdinck was a bit too optimistic. In my tenure here, I've seen too many jerks with nice cars surrounded by girls, while seeing too many people of substance struggle. It is nothing but a game, and I for one, am growing tired of playing.

       Have you dated since you've attended PLNU? 

       I'm willing to bet that the majority of answers to this question is no, not at all. It is my understanding that this type of answer is typical of most schools, so why is true of PLNU? The answer is very elementary, guys just do not ask girls out. 

       Now I've heard oodles of reasons from guys themselves about why this is so, yet not a single one of them seem truly justifiable. Some of these reasons go a little like this, "if I ask a girl out, she automatically thinks marriage" or "I don't have the money" or "I'm just too busy". Some guys have come straight out and said that they're afraid of rejection. I think that this reason appears the most convincing, the others appear as merely excuses. 

        I have a female friend who has had her eye on a handsome young bachelor lately, but when mentioning struggles of her attempts to communicate with him she said, "oh, I just wish God would take care of it." I believe this to be the perspective of many males as well. Look, you cannot sit back and expect God to say, "you two seem compatible enough to go on a carefree, no expectations, fun-filled kind of date. Poof! I'll make it so. Meet at this time... and enjoy your evening." Guys, you have to ask girls out! 

       I have the leeway to write an article saying these things simply because I already have an extremely wonderful boyfriend. Can you guess where I met him? Certainly not here (since guys don't ask girls out), I met him in a vitamin store of all places. And can you believe that in our second meeting he actually asked me out? He had the boldness to do so. 

       I don't think it would have been the end of the world for him if I had said no either--just try it. I know that the outcome of my dating Paul, my boyfriend, is now a strong relationship, but your outcome doesn't even need to be a relationship. The females of PLNU are just looking to have fun with the opposite sex. This is natural. It is healthy. 

       Before I met Paul, I had attended PLNU for two years and never truly dated anyone. Sure I went out on the prearranged "Date Night" for Young Hall etc., but that is about it. I craved to merely be asked to go on a walk with a male. I even got to the point where my standards were embarassingly low, yet no fishing hooks were out for me to bite on. 

       So I challenge all you men of PLNU to put an end to the non-dating rut we've been in, probably since this school was founded, and ask that girl you've been eyeing in chapel out on date.

       Dave, you say there is no such thing as romantic love. Well, please take note that when God created Adam, Adam basically said, "look God I need someone, I need a companion." God did make someone for him. But that person surely wasn't a male. The companion created was a female. I believe there was indeed a romantic love between the two of them. Just because you have not experienced it Dave, doesn't meant it is nonexistent. 

       A primary focus in your article regarded love, whereas the focus of my article simply pointed out the need for more male/female interaction (initiated by the males, of course). Now you mentioned that you're tired of being rejected. Rejection is never extremely easy, and I applaud you for your attempts, yet are the young women you've asked out compatible with you? Are you on the same social standings. Do you have the same interests? I ask these questions because the answers are probably in the root of why you are being rejected. Do you hold the qualities that you are looking for in the female? 

       Just this morning I spoke with a gentleman with whom I asked "why don't guys ask girls out?" He said three reasons: 1) many times they just don't think the girls are interested or attracted to them, 2) they think the girls are on a higher level at this school, 3) they don't really flirt like they did in high school, and/or the small population seems to inhibit guys since they grow afraid of the fact that if something goes wrong they will have to fact that person, as well as all of the social networking which comes with things of that nature in a small school. 

       At first this made sense to me, but after pondering this reasoning I thought, wait a minute! I know that before I met my boyfriend Paul, I got to the unfortunate point of literally throwing myself at guys, so I am not sure how valid his point was about girls not flirting. Second of all, sure this school is small, but give me a break. It is eight times the size of my high school where people did not have a hard time asking each other out. 

       Dave, your attitude in your article seems to clearly perpetuate the feeling of not even trying. You say that "it is nothing but a game, and I, for one, am starting to grow tired of playing." Well, let me tell you, the girls are tired of waiting.

        Firstly, as to the list of reasons there, Jennifer, certainly the first few reasons listed are excuses, but does that automatically make them invalid? I don't think so. Society still seems to be traditional enough that most of the time guys still have to be the ones to arrange everything. 

       Secondly, the rejection factor is huge. It's hard to even get coherent signals as to whether or not a girl is "in the market", so to speak. As I was getting at via metaphor over in my column, I have had a lot of experience with ruining friendships with girls trying to push them into something they weren't, and I think I can safely say that I'm far from alone there. 

       In my experience, the girls of PLNU (nee PLNC) aren't looking for *a* guy to ask them out, they're looking for *the* guy to ask them out. Now, I don't want to offend anyone, but it is a shallowness thing, and as much as we may like to deny it, each of us here is shallow to a certain extent. And there's just not enough of those guys to go around.