Back To School, Bill Cosby says so

Almost exactly a dozen or so years ago, my parents dropped me off at college. They pulled their mini-van up to a dirty high-rise in North Philly, unloaded all my stuff on the curb, and watched me make my way through the massive floor-to-ceiling turnstiles and past the armed security of my dorm building. Then they slammed on the gas and high-tailed it down North Broad Street. They could not have gotten out of there any faster.

Aaah.... the beginning of another school year. Lots of fantastic -- and fantastically bad --memories are coming back to me. I hated school. In fact, I still hate school. To tell you that the decision to go to Temple U came after some elaborate process of consideration would be a bald-faced lie. It was already Spring Break of my senior year of high school and I still hadn't figured it out. Was flipping thru a college catalog and saw Bill Cosby's smiling face from the set of The Cosby Show, surrounded by a perfect ethnic mix of happy people all wearing tee-shirts with the Temple T, sitting on the Huxtable's living room couch.

Yes, that's how I picked a college. I didn't even like The Cosby Show, but I figured hey, if I end up sitting on the Huxtable's couch, it wouldn't all be for naught. When my parents rolled up on North Broad Street, my dad's last words were, "Are you sure you're ok with us leaving you here?" Hahahah. If only he too had seen that picture of the Cos, and he would've been deceptively reassured.

It makes me think of all the other great (read: terrible) life decisions I've made because of a guy. (Yes, Bill Cosby counts). Isn't it funny how we occasionally make a huge choice for the strangest, not always most rational, reasons. Like smoking. I smoked in college (of course, because of a guy, not Cosby this time). Finished school and got over the guy, therefore stopped smoking. Started working and started smoking again because I had a crush on a co-worker who was a smoker. He quit (the job), and I still kept smoking. Lame, I know. (And I've since quit smoking, so you can cancel that nasty msg you were gonna send me).

Tell me your stories of throwing caution to the wind and doing something so unpredictable and worth a good storytelling. Things you've done for the Most Irrational Reasons. Please don't tell me if it's got a sad ending, though.

Oh, and don't bother if it's a story about how you, too, picked a college because of a guy, and so instead of going to Stanford you moved to NYC, and that your name is Felicity. I've heard that story, it's lame.