I have a confession to make. I am a junkie of MTV’s “The Real World.”

I love watching five or six strangers from all sides of the social agenda come together and be forced to deal with each other on a daily basis.

It may be considered a soap opera to many people, but I find it to be the most educating show on television.

“The Real World” doesn’t teach us reading, writing or history. But it does teach us about humanity; it teaches us about ourselves.

My favorite season was the most recent one in Seattle.

It brought together a Jewish African-American guy named Stephen; a passive, soft-spoken sweetheart named Rebecca; a perky, horny woman named Lindsay; and a strong idealist woman dying of Lyme disease named Irene.

On top of that, there was an exotic, Asian journalism student named Janet and, finally, Dave and Nathan, two students/friends from the Virginia Military Institute.

Pretty eclectic group, huh?

After watching several episodes, my favorite characters became Dave and Janet. Dave is an ultra-cool dude from Boston with an accent as strong as his character.

He’s never rattled or shaken by much and has a knack for going on his instincts of right and wrong. Janet is intelligent, opportunistic and sexy. Her sense of humor and understanding of herself are as sexy as Pamela Anderson eating a banana split.

Here’s why I’ve given all this introduction: Last weekend, I was on a business trip to Chicago. After several beers and way too many cigarettes, my crew made its way to the Sinabar, a wine and spirits type of joint.

I had just ordered a cool glass and turned around to find Dave from “The Real World” standing two feet from me. I drunkenly approached him.

The next thing I knew, we were talking sports, women, music, etc. He told me of his future plans at Harvard, his recent breakup stories with women and how he’s dealing with his newfound celebrity status.

After we had made this social connection, I went digging for dirt on “The Real World.” Dave told me that although the experience was a blast, he has issues with MTV.

“It’s too painful. It hurts way too much to even watch it,” Dave said.

He went on to explain that although he believes everyone in the house was being real, the editing process actually focused on the worst in each person’s character.

Dave was especially bitter about a relationship that spawned from the show with Kira, the show’s casting director.

“They really showed our relationship in a bad way. That was love, and they missed it,” he said.

About his recent fame, Dave expressed his excitement, but he doesn’t feel any different than before because he didn’t really do anything to be famous.

He also expressed his interest in letting go of the show, saying he wouldn’t be returning to any other MTV shows that pertain to the “The Real World.”

This is a strong contrast to his friend Nathan, who has since helped host the MTV Sports and Music Festival and is currently on “The Real World/Road Rules Challenge.”

“They are pimpin’ him out, aren’t they? But hey, you have to do whatever you think is right,” Dave joked about Nathan’s latching on to MTV stardom.

Then it dawned on me that he was from Boston and went to school at Harvard, so why was he in Chicago? He said he was visiting Janet and pointed to her. I expressed my interest to meet her, so he quickly called her over.

My God, is she beautiful. We talked for a while longer about what each of us want out of life. We shared a few more beers, a lot of laughs and a new friendship.

So I’ll leave you with a little advice Dave gave to me: Be yourself, and good things will happen.

Think about that today.

We’ll talk later.

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Chad Calek is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Persia.