My Friends Don't Get My Relationship

Consecutively, each of my friends professed, "I have never cheated," followed by confessing, "Oh I've been the 'other' girl, but I would never cheat." As all eyes laid on me, I debated on whether or not I should be honest with my friends or just pull the innocence card. Instead I said, "Maybe they should have tried an open relationship, I mean, after all they started out long distance." My friends gawked at me as if I were Judas at Jesus' table.

"Liz, you're either with someone, or you're not."

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I was immediately annoyed by that statement. First of all, I have had my fair share of being cheated on and cheating. But second, how could my friends judge me for suggesting a relationship based on openness and options right after a marathon of gossip and even confessing that they have been the 'other' girl? It was such a double standard. From then on, I decided to keep my mouth shut whenever the subject of monogamy ever came up.

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Call me the bizarro romanticist, but I like to think that strict monogamy is to open relationships as Communism is to Democracy. It's like apples and oranges. With Communism one is to believe that apples are the best, there is nothing more to life than just apples, even if the apples are rotten. With Democracy, apples can be your favorite but every once in a while you'll have an orange. Yet no matter how many oranges you have, you'll always go back to apples—they're just sweeter.