Your parents say it. Your teachers say it. Your friends say it. Everyone says it. The first time you interact with your college peers, EVERYONE wants to make friends. You just need to figure out how to initiate the first move. A million thoughts race through your mind. How do I relate with that chick by the wall? Does that guy seem interested or is he mean-mugging his drink? Should I talk to a professor for lack of better company? How do I talk to people??

The truth is, you don’t. You stay at home. You stay away from the world and you’ll stay that way forever until somebody suddenly says the magic words:

“Do you like working out?”

Deep breath. Reality is harsh. Each person’s perspective is subjective. The way we view different aspects of life may overlap in opinions or miss ideals entirely. This is where we digress into political debates or heated conversations about which Netflix series is better. However, the instance where this phenomenon is seen most evidently, is in the realm of personal fitness.

Whenever someone asks you about your workout habits, you’re probably in a compromised state of mind. It’s easy to say you’re a health nut so that you can form a quicker bond with the other person. But, if you’re speaking truthfully, the question of working out is a wonderful topic to discuss. Congrats on maintaining your health so diligently! You’ve already outlasted the rest of us just in abstaining from dessert. No one can truly say how much self-control they have in college, but just remember the all-encompassing truth, “If you eat well and exercise, you’re still going to die.”

Former athletes, societally pressured individuals and people who’ve been working on a bikini bod since summer 2015 share one thing in common: they’re all good liars. When approached with the topic of working out, to an extent, they will profess their love for protein shakes and weights. Or rather, their former dedication to the “swole” life. People who work out with various frequency don’t fully resurface from the working out mindset. This mentality follows them throughout inactivity and beyond. At social mixers, despite complaining about how running a mile in twenty minutes was such a pain, good liars will put on a happy face if an interesting athletic person engages them. It’s a sad fact of life. The largest category of the workout crowd is most often the crowd that would rather hit you up anywhere outside the gym (and let’s be honest, it’s not good to only meet up at gyms anyway).

Lastly, for bums like me, pain is our only solace during the sad trips to and from the gym. The dreaded question of working out is immediately associated with horror and dread. You don’t exactly want to tell the world that you’re lazy nor do you want to come off as fake. So you do what you do best: blurt out the truth in the hopes that the other person can relate to your struggle. And honestly, that’s sometimes the best way to do it. Whether it’s a relief to find a mutual sack of lazy bones or be briefly disappointed by someone who is your bod goals, sometimes coming out with the truth immediately can establish a better bond with who you’re talking to than anything else.

What it all boils down to is that when you’re asked the pivotal question concerning working out (or any question in general), it’s best to be honest and yourself. After all, when you’re in a situation simply to make some new friends, it’s probably worse to say something untrue and have to keep the façade up for upwards of an entire year. While it’s difficult, honesty is the best tool to make connections in difficult places.

And if we're being honest, who actually enjoys working out anyway?