Found Him!
I hope this entry makes sense, because it’s hard to explain. I grew up in Henderson, Nevada, and moved away when I was twelve. I knew this guy ‘Jon’ since kindergarten, and he was pretty cool. He was in my G.A.T.E. classes in fourth and fifth grades, and we were pretty good friends all the way until I left Nevada for where I’m living now. Then we lost touch, and I didn’t think about him at all.
Then the next spring break I went back to Henderson to visit my grandma, and I decided to visit my old elementary and middle schools to catch up with teachers (in the case of the elementary school) and friends (in the case of the middle school) because they had spring break at a different time than my school. I went to the elementary school and wandered around for a while, and since I was only interested in seeing the teachers, I came after school was over so I wouldn’t interrupt the classes. The elementary school’s playground was a popular hang-out for neighborhood kids of pretty much any age, and to my surprise I ran into Jon there on my way out.
I hadn’t thought about him since I left the year before, and he was still kind of an awkward kid - headgear and all. I shouldn’t be talking, though. When I left Henderson I was the second-fatest kid in school, I think. But I had grown nearly a foot in the last year and lost nearly twenty pounds since I changed medication, and if I do say so myself I looked pretty good. I saw him from a distance and waved, and he waved back with this look of shock on his face. I almost blushed when I realized he was staring at me, like he thought I was pretty! It was the first time that a guy ever looked at me like that. I filed that away in my brain, and it bolstered my self-confidence, but I still didn’t think about him much once I went back home.
The next year I came back at about the same time, and this time I went to the middle school where my friends that I had left behind were now eighth-graders. I had mostly come to see an old crush - I was fully aware that I was downright pretty by this time, and I wanted to see the same look of shock on his face as I had seen on Jon’s the year before. But on my way, guess who I ran into? Yup. And guess what? Gone was the headgear, he’d grown about a foot, and he was … hot. My brain did a little spin. What? Jon? Hot? I’d never, ever thought about him that way before. Maybe that’s what he had thought the year before when he saw me, I don’t know. He was happy to see me, and he gave me a hug while my shocked brain was still registering the fact that the nearby girl I assumed was his girlfriend was glaring at me. Then he walked away and that was the last time I saw him.
This time when I went home, though, I didn’t forget him. The next year I tried to find him, but all my friends had moved on to different high schools and he must have moved because the number he left in my middle school yearbook was wrong when I tried it. For the next four years I’d remember him on and off and try to get in touch with him, but nobody seemed to know where he was or how to get ahold of him. I admit I even looked him up on the internet quite a few times, but no luck.
Finally, about six months ago I got in touch with another old middle school friend who told me Jon had gone on a year-long mission trip to Taiwan. So I waited. And now, about a week ago I looked him up on Facebook, like I had done a dozen times before, and he was there! He wasn’t as hot as I remembered him, people change you know. Truthfully I’m probably not as pretty as I was. But after all this waiting I still feel like I should at least catch up with him. One thing that makes me nervous, though, is that he’s a Mormon. I have nothing against Mormons as people. They’re just about the nicest people around. But if I do try to pursue a relationship with him, would he date me, or would I have to be Mormon for him to even consider it? Because I could never be a Mormon, it’s just not my thing. And after all this time it would be a shame to not even try. Who knows, perhaps I’m crazy. Or perhaps this might just be something good. At least it’ll be a distraction…
