Questioninski?! Answerskaya. Ask TuffyLuv@collegecandy.com

Dear Tuffy Luv,
I moved for my senior year of high school and at the beginning had a little trouble making friends because it’s a small town, everyone knows everyone, etc. Finally, I did start making some, and one of the first ones was this girl, Peggy. Peggy is one of those people who is overly nice to everyone, so it really wasn’t surprising she was one of the first people to approach me.

So now it’s halfway through the year and I’m still friends with Peggy, except I’ve realized I don’t like her. At all. I found out the reason she’s so nice to everyone is because it’s one of her “Christian Values,” along with being extremely judgmental. She thinks she is a step above everyone else, and it is really getting to me. And now prom is coming up and she’s laid out this whole plan expecting me and whoever I go with to go along with it, and I don’t want to. But at the same time, I don’t want to be completely rude to one of the first friends I had. She isn’t the kind of person I really want in my life, but I put in a lot of time in the friendship earlier on because as a new senior I really wasn’t in a position to turn down friends and she seemed perfectly nice at the time!

So Tuffy, what should I do? Should I confront her or stick it out for the school year? We’re going to different colleges so there wouldn’t be any need to see her again. But if I do stick it out for the year I probably won’t be able to help sending her bad vibes so she might think I’m a jerk either way.

HELP!
Sincerely,
Friends? Read More »

Just another day in the country...

The summer before my freshman year of college, I packed my bags into the back of my car and drove to the big city. Cue the music, feel the rain on your skin, no one else can feel it for you… My blonde hair was whipping in the wind, my shades on. I was starting a whole new life, and although Raleigh, NC is nothing like LA and my life is far from an episode of The Hills, it was really exciting. I’m from a town where if you want to go to a mall, you have to drive forty-five minutes. A town where you can’t talk about someone, because chances are, it’s your friend’s second cousin.

So I did what any big-city-living-in-the-country girl would do; I said eff that and moved to the state’s capitol.

Oh the city; when your skyline came into my view I screamed and threw my arms into the air, excited to reside within your warm arms. For an entire school year, I danced on your bars, shopped in your stores, and fell in love with your boys. But when the summer came, I pulled a Scarlett O’Hara (“Home. I’ll go home…”). I figured the country would give me time to relax, to detox, and, frankly, it was closer to the beach. Things would be serene, and all that.

Yeah, until I smelled my town before I even entered it. Serenity (and the sound of tractors) is only interesting for about a day. I miss the city! I miss the constant buzz, the bars, and the stores! You would think I learned my lesson the first time, yet here I am, my sophomore summer, sitting in a town with a Food Lion and that’s it.

What the hell was I thinking?! Read More »

In my last blog, I wrote about the splendors of holiday hookups. (If you haven’t read it yet, get on it!) Now that most of us have exhausted the extent of our winter break hook-ups, I thought I’d take a second look at this most treasured of holiday traditions. As it turns out, there are a few things that actually can go wrong…

The Parent Thing: Even though we’ve moved out, most of us hate the thought of our parents knowing anything about our sex lives. This proves to be a huge problem when you’re actually hooking up under their roof. Nothing makes you feel like you’re back in high school more than tip-toeing through your house with a guy in tow. If you stay at his house, on the other hand, you run the risk of being discovered by his Mom and becoming “that slut” that’s sleeping with her baby.

The Small Town Thing: No matter how big of a city you live in, you can’t deny that we live in a very, very small world. And nothing proves that more true than a hometown hookup rumor spreading like a wildfire. I swear, once one person finds out and spills the beans, it’s all over. You can bet by the end of the week anybody and everybody, from his Mom to your 8th grade woodshop teacher, will know of your little rendezvous(s). Or, if you’re like me and accidentally leave a hickey on his neck, you don’t even need anybody to say anything for the entire world to know. My bad. Read More »

It’s true that upperclassmen tend to look down their noses at freshmen, particularly early in the year when they’re wet behind the ears and stumbling wide-eyed around campus. We’re not laughing at you because you’re lost, though, or because you brought a ridiculously huge couch for your 90-square-foot room. No, sophomores, juniors, seniors, chuckle at, or are continuously annoyed by freshmen, because they try too hard.

The most common insult for a freshmen: “man, that guy is trying too hard.” When coming to a competitive ivy league school, freshmen are immediately aware that the kids around them are some of the best students in the country. They probably were the small-town star of their high school, and now feel desperate to assert themselves, to still be the big fish in the rapidly expanding pond. Thus, while sitting next to a few freshmen chatting in a dining hall the other day, I was sad — sad, but not surprised — when after about 2 minutes, the test score discussions began.

“So what did you get on your SAT’s? I got ___.”

After the test scores, came the trips-to-Europe competition.

“I’ve been to Rome twice.” “Oh yeah, I went too, and Paris, and all over France as well.”

This is the epitome of Trying Too Hard, and you can see why it’s so annoying to upperclassmen. Read More »