Broken Hearted Anonymous

I was crossing Anderson Bridge and stopped to take a photo when this girl came up to me. She wanted to send an sms and she didn't know how to spell Congratulations. I helped her out. And then she started talking..

- She just broke up with her boyfriend
- She suspects that he is already seeing someone else
- She texts him all the time but he doesn't reply
- She wants him back but he doesn't want her back
- She lost her virginity to him
- She thinks that she might be pregnant
- She will make him accountable IF she is pregnant
- She lent him money
- She doesn't want to go home
- She wants to drink and forget her problems
- She feels like killing herself!!

Sound familiar?? Well sista, been there, done that. OK, not ALL of that but some.. certainly not the pregnant part! Thank God! And I've been stuck in the same vicious cycle since I was a teenager. I'm still none the wiser. When she was relating her story, I didn't know if I felt sad for her. Or sadder for myself. She was only 26. She still had her whole life ahead of her, plenty of other guys to fall for and get her heart broken again and again. I, on the other hand, 38 this year, one dusty uterus.

She wasn't hysterical or crying but I think she was there because she was thinking of jumping off the bridge. She didn't strike me as the type that had the courage to take that last step but hey, better to be safe than sorry. She probably just needed someone to talk to. So I did what I could. I told her what I thought she wanted to hear.

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn't - Erica Jong