RE: The Biggest Valentine's Day Myths of All Time
February 14, 2018 at 3:46 am
(This post was last modified: February 14, 2018 at 3:50 am by The Grand Nudger.)
This board is obviously chock full of romantic souls, lol.
The first valentines day I remember must have been in the fourth grade. There was a girl (because there's always a girl), she lived three avenues north and two streets west, in a double lot with a wall that had ivy. I'd known her forever. She and I and my best friend Joel were always the first three to finish lot sprints at PE, by a wide stretch. So..every day, we'd stand there out of breath, in triumph..and watch everyone else meander their way around the field. Tall, skinny, auburn hair. Freckles everywhere. Smart too. I can't actually remember her hand ever not being raised. I was infatuated. It took every bit of courage I had to walk over to her desk and hand her that card. I held it out, and I told her I loved her. She seemed surprised, but not by what I said..by my very existence. She looked at me like a stranger, half smiled, and said; "That's nice". Then she turned and went back to laughing and talking with her friends.
I was crushed. The first valentines day in my memory was also the first time I felt the humiliation of a public rejection. That's not what I remember most vividly about the day, though...and I don't even remember her name. What stuck with me, for decades now...was the immense relief I felt when I'd finished my little walk of shame, stifling back tears I didn't really comprehend. When I sat down, and turned back to sneak a look her way and saw her still laughing and talking as though nothing at all had happened....I couldn't remember why I'd ever even liked her. It was a non event.
Coincidentally, I never fought for a girl, or over a girl. Never lost a friend to a love triangle. Never begrudged anyone for failing to return my own feelings towards them. I never had another crush. Pubescent drama went entirely missing from my childhood experience....and then my early adulthood. I learned the value..I think, in that instant, of building actual relationships from my failure to do so with her. The silliness and the danger of professing love to someone you didn't know..and who didn't know you. The absurdity of the anonymous suitor. I've been in love and been loved every valentines day since.
As it turns out someone else was was crushed that day, and she'd sat right next to me for as long as I'd been infatuated with whatever her name was. She was my best friend. We'd walked to school every day, together, since kindergarten..and we'd do so all the way through highschool. She lived right across the street..my window faced hers. In the end that didn't work out, we both went our separate ways....but it did give me a deep in to the mind of teenage girls. Which was...useful, at least as an entry into serial monogamy, lol.
So...maybe, give your best friend a valentines day card this year...if you don't have a significant other. Hey, you never know.
The first valentines day I remember must have been in the fourth grade. There was a girl (because there's always a girl), she lived three avenues north and two streets west, in a double lot with a wall that had ivy. I'd known her forever. She and I and my best friend Joel were always the first three to finish lot sprints at PE, by a wide stretch. So..every day, we'd stand there out of breath, in triumph..and watch everyone else meander their way around the field. Tall, skinny, auburn hair. Freckles everywhere. Smart too. I can't actually remember her hand ever not being raised. I was infatuated. It took every bit of courage I had to walk over to her desk and hand her that card. I held it out, and I told her I loved her. She seemed surprised, but not by what I said..by my very existence. She looked at me like a stranger, half smiled, and said; "That's nice". Then she turned and went back to laughing and talking with her friends.
I was crushed. The first valentines day in my memory was also the first time I felt the humiliation of a public rejection. That's not what I remember most vividly about the day, though...and I don't even remember her name. What stuck with me, for decades now...was the immense relief I felt when I'd finished my little walk of shame, stifling back tears I didn't really comprehend. When I sat down, and turned back to sneak a look her way and saw her still laughing and talking as though nothing at all had happened....I couldn't remember why I'd ever even liked her. It was a non event.
Coincidentally, I never fought for a girl, or over a girl. Never lost a friend to a love triangle. Never begrudged anyone for failing to return my own feelings towards them. I never had another crush. Pubescent drama went entirely missing from my childhood experience....and then my early adulthood. I learned the value..I think, in that instant, of building actual relationships from my failure to do so with her. The silliness and the danger of professing love to someone you didn't know..and who didn't know you. The absurdity of the anonymous suitor. I've been in love and been loved every valentines day since.
As it turns out someone else was was crushed that day, and she'd sat right next to me for as long as I'd been infatuated with whatever her name was. She was my best friend. We'd walked to school every day, together, since kindergarten..and we'd do so all the way through highschool. She lived right across the street..my window faced hers. In the end that didn't work out, we both went our separate ways....but it did give me a deep in to the mind of teenage girls. Which was...useful, at least as an entry into serial monogamy, lol.
So...maybe, give your best friend a valentines day card this year...if you don't have a significant other. Hey, you never know.
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