Typically within a few minutes of meeting a new person, one of my lovingly protective friends will have a zip file in my inbox with a full background check on this individual. It was only recently that this method by which I quickly filter friend from foe, was challenged. This past summer I had the pleasure of making a new acquaintance, we'll call him Q, during my travels throughout the United States. We exchanged a few words over a glass of wine before exchanging business cards and parting ways. Q's sense of humor and confidence did not match his boring occupation so I was skeptical. Less than 5 minutes after I left the restaurant, a zip file with all of Q's information was in my inbox.
I did not anticipate ever interacting with Q again, but I was curious about some unique traits that had been displayed, so I skimmed through the file while I waited for my plane to arrive. A few minutes before boarding time, Q walked over and sat next to me with killer confidence which did not match the lowly job he had originally claimed to hold and now I knew why. He was a retired NFL player. Somehow, though retired, he maintained the perfect body of a demigod and every woman between 25-40 living in the US knew him by name. (I think the only reason he spoke to me was because he was highly amused that, as an expat, I had no clue who he was).
So the communication continued, a few months later I revealed that I had found out who he was right before boarding the plane. Through this exchange I was shocked to discover that he/she disliked this method of getting to know someone. I found it a bit ironic since this was the only reason our friendship lasted longer than 5 minutes, so I decided to ask around to other friends with which I had employed this method to determine if I was crazy. After asking around several circles of friends, I found that Q was the only one opposed to this. Many friends, to my surprise, responded with what sources they rely upon to conduct quick background checks & their reasons for living by such sources. Below is a list of the most common reasons.......
I did not anticipate ever interacting with Q again, but I was curious about some unique traits that had been displayed, so I skimmed through the file while I waited for my plane to arrive. A few minutes before boarding time, Q walked over and sat next to me with killer confidence which did not match the lowly job he had originally claimed to hold and now I knew why. He was a retired NFL player. Somehow, though retired, he maintained the perfect body of a demigod and every woman between 25-40 living in the US knew him by name. (I think the only reason he spoke to me was because he was highly amused that, as an expat, I had no clue who he was).
So the communication continued, a few months later I revealed that I had found out who he was right before boarding the plane. Through this exchange I was shocked to discover that he/she disliked this method of getting to know someone. I found it a bit ironic since this was the only reason our friendship lasted longer than 5 minutes, so I decided to ask around to other friends with which I had employed this method to determine if I was crazy. After asking around several circles of friends, I found that Q was the only one opposed to this. Many friends, to my surprise, responded with what sources they rely upon to conduct quick background checks & their reasons for living by such sources. Below is a list of the most common reasons.......
- How I Met Your Mother Season 7 Episode 6
- Litigation
- Looking for a new tenant, house mate or roommate
- Liability
- Credibility
- You meet without being introduced by a credible mutual friend. If the first few facts they tell you are true, you can place them in the "not a waste of time, potential for solid friendship" category, and usually the first few facts a stranger will tell you can be verified with a simple background check.
- Hiring
- Firing
- Your hopeless romantic of a brother / father / mother / sister, who has a knack for choosing crazy bitches / asses to be your new sister-in-law / step-mother / step-father / brother-in-law, meets a new man / woman.
- Adopting
- Moving
- Investing
- Shopping (on a large scale)
- He is cute, why is he still single? / She is cute, what dead bodies are in her closet?
- Identity theft
- Applying for a new job
- Applying for college
- My friend just met someone & I am hella over protective.