What Changes Your Personal Preferences?

Posted on 14 April 2008 by Nicholas Johnson

This has been on my mind for some time now. It is said that as you age, your taste buds change. As they change, we start to enjoy other foods and dislike ones that previously we had loved. There have been scientific studies conducted that support this and we, as a society, have accepted this. In addition to the change in my taste buds, other things have changed. When I was a young boy, my hair was almost white and now it is a very dark blonde. Some might even say it is light brown. I’m not so much concerned with the physical changes I have undergone over the past decade or two as I am with the mental changes.

The most notable mental alteration is the metamorphosis in my preferences of the opposite sex. I can remember when I was a senior in high school (RHS  ‘96….whoo whoo Go Raiders!) and in a moment of pure enlightenment, I realized that every girlfriend I had ever had was blonde-haired and blue eyed. Many would write this off as a classic case of the Oedipus complex. Sure, I hated my father, who didn’t. And yes, I loved my mother, but not in *that* way. I think that it stems more from lack of exposure to other sects of our culture. I ended up forcing myself to date brunettes, Asians, redheads, and all sorts of other women. It worked.

This led to my next major change in preference. Redheads. Nature’s ugly ducklings. In my entire K-12 school experience, I cannot remember more than maybe 2 redhead girls that I’d ever have called pretty (Just in case they are reading this: I’m talking about you MM and JH….call me). I personally feel that the fact that most redheads have to learn to love their uniqueness causes them to develop personality traits that are much deeper than your average blondes. I think that it also causes the gestation of the “crazy” gene.

The “crazy” gene not only affects the carrier, but it also affects the person that they date. Seriously, the only time I have ever found myself standing in the rain, in my bathrobe, banging on my girlfriend’s window, at 3am was when I was dating a redhead. Yet, I still find myself strangely attracted to them. Like a moth to the flame of an acetylene torch. I think Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst said it best, “everyone that burns has to learn from the pain”. He also said, “I pack a chainsaw, I’ll skin your ass raw”, so what does he know? I’m not sure if my redhead phase is a phase I’ll ever outgrow.

Lately, I have noticed that I have started to develop a “thing” for girls with tattoos. And by “tattoos”, I’m not talking about the girls that have the (soon to be mandatory) lower back tattoo  or the tiny flower on or around their hip. I’m talking about the girls (women) with full sleeves  and chest pieces. I’m talking about a minimum of 20% ink coverage. I’m not sure what has brought about this attraction. Maybe I’m envious. Maybe I just like art. Maybe I can appreciate the pain that was endured. Whatever it is, it’s hot.

I finally understand the moniker “suicide girls”. It’s not a bunch of girls that want to kill themselves (as my grandmother so eloquently put it during dinner this past Thanksgiving). “Suicide girls” are the girls that I’d kill myself to date. That is if I was ballsy enough to approach any of them and ask for their number.

Unfortunately for me, I’m too logical. I am the Bobby Fischer of the dating scene. I’m always thinking 8-10 steps ahead. In this case, Instead of living in the moment and enjoying tattoos in their freshly inked glory, I tend to see what a girl will look like when that fresh ink is all faded and saggy. I blame that on myself. I have a bad tattoo that has been faded since about a week after I got it (12 years ago) to remind me that tattoos, like beauty, do fade. To that I say, “such is life”. Maybe I’ll just ride this mental phase out and get my hopes up for the next “thing” that does it for me.

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