You know, it’s funny the way things seem to happen. Five minutes of one day can change the rest of your life. I know it did mine. And that change taught me that letting loose and giving in to a spur-of-the-moment1 idea is what life is all about. I recently was given the opportunity to do research on fruit flies through an eight-week summer program for high school students funded by NASA at Cornell University. I headed out from Florida to the college town of Ithaca, New York, alone and free, not knowing what adventures lay before me.

One weekend, my friends and I were fighting boredom, staring blindly out the window. It was clear we needed to get out and do something, anything. So we headed for the mall. We wandered around the commercial paradise in search of enlightenment, or simply something to do. I discovered our afternoon diversion in a small sized bottle of blue hair spray2. “Let’s color our hair blue!” I said spontaneously. We received a few strange glances on the bus ride back to campus, but most of the occupants were either too old or too tired to notice a bunch of crazy kids, and I admit I was a little disappointed at their indifference. After all, our hair was blue!

Later, when we went out for dinner, we got an entirely different reaction. We were waiting for another friend to meet us in front of a beautiful gray stone church not far from our dorms. For the first time, I felt extremely nervous about how others would react to my appearance. I worried about being on campus in broad day light with blue hair, but all three of us idiots quickly reminded ourselves that we weren’t going to see anyone who knew us anyway, so what the heck. I thought about my mother and what she’d say about blue hair, but all I could come up with were her words “ always wear clean underwear.” She never warned me about hair color, so off we went.

That’s when the guys appeared. I think they had been surreptitiously3 hiding under rocks or in their dorm rooms until that moment. Before now, hardly anyone had been on campus. We all forgot that this was the day thousands of college students were arriving. Good timing, Alicia, I thought to myself sarcastically. That is how I met John the cute college guy with the dark hair, incorrigible4 air, and playful grin who sauntered5 up in the middle of several friends and snickered6 at the blue haired buffoons7 before him. I consoled8 one of my friends, “Don’t worry! We will never see them again!”

The next night, Cornell sponsored a party for those of us in the summer program. They fashioned the entertainment after MTV’s Singled Out show, where a blindfolded person ends up with a date for the night based on a series of ridiculous questions his partner has to answer. A friend and I walked into the room, and John stood up and yelled out, “Blue hair!” The Singled Out game was a great backdrop9, as the entire room directed their attention to me. It’s a good thing he did embarrass me, though John and I have been together ever since. If I had never followed a whim10 to dye my hair blue (which I immediately washed out after dinner that night), I would never have met John, my best friend and boyfriend. The one time I let loose and did something without caring what others thought about it, I had the time of my life.

Things could have ended up differently that day. I could merely have been the girl on the corner in khaki shorts, but that memory would have been fleeting and short lived. There are thousands of people in college, and it takes something unusual to stand out among them. So I was the girl with blue hair. And to this day, I have never regretted it. The five minutes it took to spray my hair changed my life for the better.

And what does John have to say about the whole incident? He still makes fun of me, like when he told his mother how we met. Now his sister and brother- in-law know, and my parents eventually found out as well. But they all have the same reaction. They all laugh and say that is the funniest “first meeting” of a couple they have ever heard. And despite the fact the blue hair led me to John, he has explicitly asked me not to dye my hair blue again. I promised him that I wouldn’t. No, next time I’m definitely thinking pink.

注释：

1. spur-of-the-moment a. 出于一时冲动的，不假思索的

2. spray n. 喷雾，用作喷雾的液体

3. surreptitiously ad. 鬼鬼祟祟地，偷偷摸摸地，保密地

4. incorrigible a. 屡教不改的，不可救药的

5. saunter vi. 闲逛，漫步

6. snicker vi. 窃笑，暗笑，傻笑

7. buffoon n. 滑稽的人，小丑

8. console vt. 安慰，抚慰，慰问

9. backdrop n. [戏] 背景幕

10. whim n. 突然产生的念头，冲动

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