Girls are fun. You can play with them, take them out and, if the occasion calls for it, even talk to them.

However, this can be said of any female friends or acquaintances, even those met at the Rat. Sometimes, a gentleman would like his relationship with a girl to move onto a more serious level. This often raises the question: Does she like me back?

Unfortunately, neither you nor I am a psychic, and the only one who can answer that question is the object of your affection. But what if she doesn’t feel the same way? This brings us to our main dilemma, an internal struggle that occurs in the minds of men, women and others the world over. Do you tell them how you feel, or do you hide the feelings, thus avoiding the chance of rejection forever?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from writing for Pipe Dream, it’s that I’m okay with telling people what to do. So that is what I shall do.

What does one accomplish by keeping his or her feelings of love and desire pent up inside? Angst, lust, aggravation, sadness; the list goes on and on, and keeps going as long as the crush/infatuation lasts.

What, pray tell, do we get out of telling someone how we feel about him or her and risking the chance of rejection?

If you’d stop asking so many questions and just let me do my job, I could tell you.

The only sure-fire way to fail at something is to never try — as cheesy as that sounds. You have no guarantee that the person you like doesn’t like you back. Please trust me in this, since I speak from personal experience. Waiting any longer to tell the person will only increase his or her chances of moving on, while hindering yours. This is quite detrimental to your love life’s well-being, because being able to move on is the only way you can stay in the game without growing too attached to a love that can never be.

So what happens when you reveal your feelings to that special someone and get shot down?

NOTHING.

But here is the beauty of college and relationships. There is always another person, even if you temporarily think otherwise. And who knows, you may even implant the notion of yourself as a romantic interest in the mind of your crush and plant the seeds for something better in the future. But even if that doesn’t happen, you still have a plethora of other options to choose from.

So please, Binghamton University reader, stop moping around! I myself have spent way too much time in life moping, and I can tell you it gets you nowhere. Move on, have confidence in yourself and eventually you will hit pay dirt — metaphorically speaking. Confidence and persistence conquer most matters of the heart, and if they don’t, then you should probably remove yourself from the situation anyway.

So go out, tell that person how you feel and if for whatever reason he or she happens to not feel the same way, forget it! That person doesn’t know what he or she is missing out on, and I guarantee you that there is someone out there who will gladly not make the same mistake. It may take a while to find that person, but he or she is definitely out there. If you never take the chance to find out, you’ll never know.