the talks my dad and I used to have when we'd go backpacking together during my college summer breaks.

To put it nicely, I wasn't exactly the kind of guy that the ladies swarmed around. In that regard, I experienced dating failure after dating failure, which was almost as depressing for my dad as it was for me.

Nevertheless, he would try to pep me up by saying something along the lines of, "I have a feeling this is going to be your big breakout year." Then he would go into all of the reasons why he believed that.

At first, I was always skeptical and would think to myself, "why will this year be any different?" But the more my dad talked, the more I wanted to believe that maybe he was on to something. Eventually, I'd tell myself, "yeah, this year is gonna be different. I'm finally gonna score with someone. Or at least get a second date."

Then, like clockwork, I'd go off to BYU and flame out as per the usual.