The summer before freshman year, my mom decided it would be a good idea to send me to a six-week music camp in North Carolina. This would be my first overnight camp experience. Of course, this would be the place where I get my dreams crushed by an 18-year-old French boy.

Pierre was tall, brunette and handsome. The only downside was that he could barely speak English. However, I was completely fine with that. After all, I had learned two years of French in middle school. On the first day that I attempted to impress him, I started off by testing out my French. After ten minutes I realized that the French seduction was not working, so I decided to speak to him in English. But what I discovered after an hour of extremely slow conversation was that he liked Spanish girls.

Nevertheless, I kept on trying. I would find a spot next to him in the cafeteria at least every other day and attempt to start romantic conversations, (at one point I was talking about Wall Street and he had no idea what I was saying).

The breaking point came when Elle, a beautiful 16-year-old Spanish girl, arrived three weeks into the camp session. She was the girl Pierre had been looking for. Immediately upon arrival they swapped phone numbers and were cuddling in the practice room. Because she spoke Spanish and was learning French, their communication was much better than ours. It was an unfortunate sight.

Even though I am still traumatized from the experience, I have learned two important lessons: Do not go for people with a language barrier and do not go for older men.