I graduated from college two years before my then-girlfriend and was obligated to move across the country for a military assignment. It was the first time we'd been long distance. In six months I was only able to visit her twice (this was before the days of Skype), but we spoke on the phone every day.

She called me and ended things just before Thanksgiving saying that she couldn't do it anymore and she felt like we were just really good friends (although I found out later that her parents had told her that she could do better than me). Within a few weeks, she was seeing someone else. I was heartbroken because she was my first love.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, she called me routinely and sent me a Christmas present with a note that said if I were closer to her, she'd give it to me in person.

Silly me decided to make a grand gesture and fly to see her on Christmas night, deliver a present to her, and get back together and live happily ever after. Bought a plane ticket from my hometown, several states away, to her hometown in Illinois. Got in to Chicago in the early evening and was one puddle jumper flight away from her town when the airport cancelled all flights for the evening due to a blizzard (flights ended up being cancelled for the next two days).

Undeterred, I decided to rent a car and just drive the last 200 miles to see her. Foiled again - every single rental car station at the airport was sold out and all off-airport rental car places were already closed. That's okay, I'd take the Greyhound - except that the bus had left 30 minutes prior and there wouldn't be any more that night because visibility was so limited by the snow.

Ready to give up, I thought I'd try one last thing. Walked outside to the cab stand and asked the first driver in the queue how he felt about driving to Springfield. I explained to him why I was making this unusual request and his reply was that it was just about the craziest thing he'd ever done, but he'd do it. Jumped in the cab with my bag and Christmas present in hand.

Ended up driving around 35mph the entire way there and shared the entire story with the driver. About 30 minutes away, I started to get worried that she would be going to sleep soon as it was getting quite late. Asked her to stay awake, and when she asked why, I told her that I was coming to see her and deliver her Christmas present in person. She said she was shocked, but wanted to see me and would stay awake.

Minutes after hanging up, her *MOTHER* calls me and asks what in the hell I think I'm doing and tells me that things are over with her daughter. It was unbelievable to me that a grown woman would meddle so much in her adult daughter's business. At that moment, I was completely deflated - I had thought that after seeing the great lengths I'd gone to in order to get there, her family would understand and be supportive. Instead, my (ex)girlfriend called me and said we'd better meet at a hotel.

My driver dropped me off at a local hotel and I was completely sick over what had transpired in the last half hour of our drive. Everything had started crumbling. I was already in a daze when I paid the $650 cab fare.

Inside the hotel, I waited for my (ex)girlfriend in the lobby. I poured out my heart to her. Ultimately, she said she didn't want to get back together because she didn't see how it would work out and she left.

Didn't sleep a bit that night. Stayed up on the phone with the airline trying to book a flight home. The earliest they could fly me out was still more than 24 hours away. The last thing I wanted to do was sit in a hotel room by myself in my ex's town after being so flatly rejected.

When the sun came up, I took a cab to the Springfield airport to rent a car. Had to wait three hours for the car rental counter to open up and then another hour for a car to be readied. I proceeded to drive twelve hours home through a snowstorm and cried my eyes out the whole way home. By the time, I got home, I was completely numb (and over $1000 lighter in the pocketbook). I slept for the next two days straight.

And that was the stupidest thing I ever did for love.