When boys aren't men yet

When boys aren't men yet
By Katrina C. Guevarra

“How can a man be expected to make a woman happy, when he insists on treating her like a perfectly normal human being.” – Oscar Wilde

You’ve been preparing for this for hours, excruciatingly doing (and re-doing) your make up, styling your hair until finally it stays in the style you want it to be and of course, getting into the clothes you’ve prepared days before for the date. Just when you thought everything’s perfect, he doesn’t show up. Either that, or he shows up two hours late smelling like alcohol and gives the lame excuse of “Sorry, biglang nagkayayaan ang barkada eh.” Sounds familiar? Well, that’s one of the worst scenarios I have encountered in the relationships I’ve had in my 19 years of existence. Maybe because I am not used to being exchanged for booze – just for computer games.

Which brings us to another thing I don’t understand about guys, I know many girlfriends (and ex-girlfriends) out there will agree with me when I say that guys can be a slave to computer games and basketball games sometimes. I’ve seen countless girls, some even friends of mine, who would curse the game for taking up a huge chunk in their boyfriend’s lives. There are those with a different approach to this matter though. Like someone I know who tolerates her boyfriend’s obsession with online games by giving him a monthly supply of e-games card. Though there are guys like these who have girlfriends, there are those who don’t have one and choose to socialize in online fantasy worlds.

There are also other guys who likes bragging about their sexcapades with other girls, to the new one they have just met. As with any other girls, I believe that nothing screams “No sex life” more than someone bragging “how many girlfriends he has had, how many of those girlfriends he has devirginized or how big his penis size is.” Trust me, unless you are a hot matinee idol, no one wants to know. There are some guys who remain single because of this.

Other guys remain single because of another thing, being commitment-phobic. They treat would treat a certain girl as their girlfriends, exchange I-love-you’s, but don’t want to commit in a relationship. His reason for doing so could range from “I don’t want the title of boyfriend and girlfriend, it is just too overrated” to ones like “I’m just not ready to commit yet. I’m just enjoying the moment right now.” Those are reasons that could send a girl into a lot of lost sleep. If a girl’s moodswings drive a guy crazy, a guy’s phobia to commitment certainly is one the factors that drives us girls crazy. Why would you run away from love just when it is getting serious.

I guess that’s what differentiates a man from a woman. A woman tries so hard to find a serious relationship, while men run away from it.