>I was listening to the 80s station today and they were playing a lot of pop songs from my Junior High School days. Groups like the Jets, Expose, Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, remind me of all those guys I had crushes on. I’m pretty sure none of them ever knew. I was painfully shy back them. I’ve come a long way. Turning 30 tends to cure a woman of her qualms. Anyway, I remember my first teenage crush. It lasted a good year or two. Then I found out one of my best friends had a crush on the same guy. I never told her that I had my eye on him. Why should I? It wasn’t like he was ever going to speak to me. She pursued him. I watched from the sidelines. She didn’t do any better than I would have. He had his heart set on my cousin, who was “going steady with” someone else. Ah…young love, always unrequited.
My first real crush lasted about all of 15 minutes in the 4th grade. One cloudy day, I saw this boy, Jay and it was like I was looking at him for the first time. He’d been in my class all year, but for some reason, I saw him differently at that moment. I noticed how cute he was, and how I liked his wavy, black hair. We all went out to recess. I watched Jay across the playground hanging out with his friends. Then he spit on the ground and any attraction to him drained away in disgust.