"I beseech you by all that is sacred, I implore you..."

When I was in college, for the most part, I would go to class and not really pay attention. My ipod and the sudoku in the newspaper were my best friends. I know, I am a bad role model for kids. Oh well. I just don't really have much of an attention span for finding the beta for a finance portfolio, or figuring out the interest rate if I invest in a specific bond. But, there are those few times I was in school when the teacher would teach us, and I would actually listen, take it all, and like it. One of these instances was when I was a freshman in my English 102 class.

At my school, English 102 was a requirement for everyone (even though I was a business major). Most business majors I knew didn't like classes in the college of arts and science, I was different. I actually loved my class. My teacher was young, adorable, and really smart. He made the class interesting, and the fact that he was really cute did help me want to go to class and pay attention. One day we were assigned to read a story in the textbook we had, and for some reason, I actually read it. It was a short story by the Russian author Anton Chekhov and it was called "The Lady with the Pet Dog".

A Woman with A Dog (Portrait of Madame Renior) by Pierre-Auguste Renior

I had never even heard of this so called "Anton Chekhov" but I decided to read it none-the-less. And I was completely blown away. I actually loved the short story. Now, 4 years later, I still find myself re-reading the story of the bitter, misogynistic, 40 year old, Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov. In the story, Dmitri decides to take a holiday to Yalta, a city in southern Ukraine near the Black Sea, to get away from his life in Moscow, where he hates his life, and his over-bearing wife. While on vacation, he meets the young Anna Sergeyevna. Dmitri begins talking to Anna and decides that he just wants to use her for a one night stand, she seems pure, and unhappy in her marriage also. Since he has somewhat of a hatred for woman, he thinks it would be good to use her. Once he is done with her, they both go their seperate ways, but Dmitri finds it odd that he still thinks about Anna when he returns home to Moscow. Then...well, I think you should read the rest.

I highly recommend the story to everyone. Here is a copy of the text online for free. It is quick to go through. Read it, and let me know what you think. Hopefully you'll be as mesmerized by this story as I have all these years.