I didn't take it in stride this one time. I didn't say: "oh well, I'll date someone else."
Instead, I started thinking:
"No girl ever is going to like me. In fact, I'll never get another date again. I just am not good enough to be dated. All the other guys are better and pulling ahead of me."
"Instead, I'll join the Catholic Church and become a male nun. I'll live at my days in a monastery. I wonder if my parents will come and visit me. My parents probably won't visit me there, I won't have any family to speak of. And the female nuns probably won't even look at me. Freaking stuck up female nuns. I hate them, let's fire all female nuns."
Cougar board reacting to this loss is a lot like me reacting to that girl. That's all I have to say.