This past weekend, my cousin from the University of Massachusetts came to visit me for the weekend. He came up to my apartment and talked to my friends for a while, before going to the house party of his ‘friend from home.’ When he left, my friends went on and on about how cute he was. I was in shock. This is a boy that I’ve grown up with my whole life. I’ve seen him poop in his pants and stick things up his nose. When he was about 10, he insisted on buying girls’ Keds sneakers because he thought they were ‘pretty,’ and when we used to play together, he’d cry when he lost.

I couldn’t believe that my friends looked into his face and thought he was hot, while all I saw was the male image of my aunt and uncle combined (who, though attractive, are like 50).

His friend’s party was on a Friday night, and so Saturday morning, after he got over his hangover, he came to my house for the rest of the weekend. My friends, much to my horror and amazement, batted their eyelashes at him and laughed at his stupid jokes. After a while I could see that he took to one more than the others, and for the rest of the night I watched him and my friend getting along like two wallabies in mating season. When I thought about it, I couldn’t believe how similar they were. They liked the same music, had the same boisterous personality and shared similar senses of humor. When I tried to imagine them together, I thought it could be one of the most functional relationships I’ve ever seen.

They had a fun night together, but early in the morning my cousin went back to school. I knew that might be the last time he and my friend would hang out in a long time. Love is so arbitrary. There are hundreds of people in the world floating around right now, in hundreds of different countries, that are perfect for you. Sometimes you’re lucky enough to find one in your geographic proximity, but sometimes it takes a while or a random event for you to meet them.

My cousin and my friend’s ‘couple-hour fling’ really got me thinking about the random and nonsensical way people get together. If you had gone to a different school, gone abroad at a different time, chosen a different movie time ‘ who knows who you’d be with, if anyone.

‘ Micol Zweig is a junior English major.