The Best Advice I Ever Got

When I was a freshman in college, I lived with two other girls. One was kind of a bitch. I disliked her. I called her Gwyneth. I don't remember her real name. The other, however, was pretty cool. She was a senior, and I think she was in that whole "finding herself" phase, except that she always had a pretty strong sense of who she was. It was just figuring out who everyone else was.

Anyway, she had this friend named Colette who was, like, the coolest girl I'd ever met. She was this tall black chick with kind of stereotypical '70s natural hair, and she always had on a Rambo-style headband. She worked at the co-op down the street, and she dressed like someone who would work at a co-op like that. She always kind of reminded me of Janice from the Muppets, off in her own world.

So cool. Apparently she had just gotten over some issues with hard drugs or something. Whatever. She was so cool.

At the time, I was having boy trouble. I'd split up with the guy I'd been dating for about a year, but of course he was always in and out of my life. When we were together, he was horrible to me. When we weren't together, he was desperate to get me back. That kind of thing. But at the time I had three other guys interested in me, and I wasn't really sure what to do. One guy was a typical frat boy (it was a Jewish fraternity, which somehow made it less sleazy?), which kind of amused me. Then there was the art school grad who liked punk music, smoked way too much, and had an oddly disturbing taste in movies. And finally, the tall-dark-and-handsome one. 'Nuff said.

Being a 17-year-old with pretty much no self-esteem, my inclination was to go back to what was familiar, even though he made me miserable. At the time I was so desperate for stability that I think that was the allure. But the older guys taking an interest made things a little more complicated. For instance, Frat Boy was pretty funny. I don't mean that in a nice way. I mean in the kind of way you laugh at later and say, "Oh my god, he actually said that?!" Entertaining.

The art student was a little different. He was much older than me, which was flattering. And despite how ridiculous he sounds in writing, he was a genuinely nice guy. He listened to me and looked me in the eye, which for some reason was different. Unlike Frat Boy, I actually enjoyed this guy's company. Not the smell, though. Yuck.

And then there was the third guy. Sigh. 'Nuff said.

So my roommate and I were talking, and I was agonizing over what to do. And super cool Colette was just standing there, in her own little world, not really paying attention to the conversation. And then all of a sudden she looked at me and said, "Girl, you just gotta wait."

I stood there for a second, expecting her to continue, but she was off on her own again. "Wait?" I said, prompting her to go on.

"Wait like you're waiting for a bus."

I'm pretty sure that's the wisest piece of advice anyone's ever given me.

I still have no idea what it means.