Way Back When-sday: Teenage Fantasies

This is a story from my youth. I never thought of being embarrassed by it until I shared it at a recent book club and everyone laughed at me. Then I realized, I'm kind of a dork. But that's OK, it's not like that's new information or anything.

When I was in 8th grade, I had a huge crush on a boy named Justin. We had nothing in common--he was a skater with lots of friends and awesome hair. Oh, the hair. Remember when guys used to wear it long in the front and then do the head-flip thing every 48 seconds? ...sorry, I got lost in my reverie... back to the story. I, on the other hand, was shy, awkward, and good at math.

Every day as I rode the bus home after school, I would watch him walk home, or better yet, skateboard home. Oh, how my 13-year-old teenage heart yearned to know him, to have him smile and me and want to sit next to me at lunch time. The problem was, he had no idea who I was. We had one class together, but never interacted.

There had to be some way for our worlds to collide. Some way for him to get to know me and then, clearly, he would immediately fall in love with me. So I daydreamed that I would be his.... math tutor. Yes, that's right. That was my big fantasy. He would ask me to be his math tutor, so after school I would walk home with him and spend time hanging out with his family in-between algebra pop quizzes. They, of course, would fall in love with me too, and we would all live happily ever after, surrounded by algebraic equations and geometric shapes. Ahhh, love!

p.s. I recently looked Justin up on facebook. We are not fb friends, so you can't find him on my friends list. But, I have to say even though he has lost the floppy skater hair, he has remained a good-looking guy. So I guess I had good taste even back then.

p.p.s. Just to clarify, I am very happily married and, ironically, my husband could be MY math tutor. Funny how life works out, huh?