I have lots of volumes on my shelf. The other day, I was moving the journals from their place on the shelf and I started to read. I found myself laughing over the craziness of my teenage years. I was either totally boy crazy, or that was just all I thought was important to write about because I seriously spent pages mooning over a boy on my swim team (it was pages and years, I tell you) and every little thing he did was analyzed and then over analyzed. Yikes! I skimmed through some of that, but then I came to a page where there was a letter placed as a book mark. I have to share...
It's long, but I can't really summarize.
Sue Johnson,
After much thought and consideration, I have come up with this answer to the question that you posed to me yesterday. Read the following at your own risk:
Last Friday, which would have been the 3rd of November, I had a very intriguing day. It began the same as usual. I awoke at precisely 6:30 A.M., got ready for school, and arrived at the aforementioned school at approximately 7:31 A.M. I went throughout the school day same as usual until about 1:42 P.M. when you, being Sue, asked to see my Homecoming pictures. At this point, I was unaware how vastly this decision would affect my life. While we were talking, your friend, which would be Melissa Nelson, talked to me and told me to come to your birthday at 7:30 P.M. that night. Not thinking too much of it, I carried on normally until I arrived home from school at about 4 o'clock P.M. When I arrived home, I received a message to call Natalie Stoddard, presumably another friend of yours whose house the aforementioned party was going to be at. I received all the details of the party from Melissa after I returned the call. I decided I would go to the party. I arrived at the house of Natalie Stoddard at about 7:50 P.M. We were a little late, but that didn't matter because no one was there yet.
Soon, everone arrived, including you, being Sue, whom the party was for, and things started to get going. We had a little burnt cake, and ice cream. Sung happy birthday, you know, the usual. I then recall playing true colors, and I had the fortunate opportunity to be your partner. After the game, we started to watch Ace Ventura, which is a movie. This is where things got interesting. I happened to be laying next to you on the floor. Somehow, I would say about half way through the movie, maybe more, maybe less, one of my fingers touched one of your fingers. Gradually things got a little more serious and before I knew it almost every finger was touching. Soon, your fingers were everywhere and mine were everywhere. I mean things almost got out of hand (that's a pun). Anyway, the movie ended and things were great. We talked a little and threw some pillows, and then after a little bit, Melissa took me and you, and my friend (who went with me to the party) to your house and then you took me and my friend home. We listened to some music that was from the 80's and talked about stuff. I don't really remember what we talked about. Anyway, I went home and went to bed. Anyway, maybe we should talk about our feelings on the day, or somethings like that, but I won't say anything unless you want me to talk about it.
My name is Clint.
P.S. You were looking at Emily weird, how come?
Oh my heck, I have laughed over this letter. I didn't remember this night at all until I read this letter. Then I remembered Natalie burning the pre-cooked cake and listening to Billy Joel. I remembered holding Clint's hand and being so embarrassed that I was a Senior who just held hands with a Junior.
In the future pages of the journal, I wrote out the conversation that we had later on where we decided we would have fun and hang out, but not be in a relationship. The conversation was so funny!
Exerpt: The first words out of his mouth were "I don't want a relationship" I said "okay, I'm cool with that. But what are we going to do about what happened on Friday?" He said, "well, I liked it. What about you?" I was quite confused. So I just gave him a weird look. So he said "Okay, I have this problem. I'm only 17. I have two more years of High school left and I like this girl and we held hands and stuff, but I still don't know how she feels. What should I do?" I said, "well, what's her name? Maybe I know her. " He said "Sue Johnson". I laughed and said "I know her. I talked to her today and she said she likes this guy named Clint. But she's not going to do anything about it because he has some kind of relationship rule." He thought that was pretty funny, and he explained why he doesn't like relationships. Because things get too complicated. You have to break up. You have no freedom to date other people and it just ends up all screwed. I agreed. But then he kind of shocked me. He told me he wanted to have a good friendship with me, where we date and stuff, but there's no obligation. I thought that was kinda cool. When we got to his house, I could tell he still had something to say, so I made him spit it out. It took him forever, but he finally said "if we're watching a movie, and...you know, something happens, that's okay." I started laughing.
Hello! Who's older? The Junior boys or Seniors...even graduated boys! He's totally nervous to say his feelings, but he does it. No beating around the bush.
I remember he used to make me laugh so hard. I took him to a dance later on, but I ended up being really mad at him for not wanting a relationship. Hello! He clearly stated what he wanted when we first started out! What was wrong with me? And good for Clint! He was funny and articulate. Later on in the entry, he talked about having goals for a mission, so he doesn't want a girlfriend. I hope my boys can be that confident and sure of themselves.
This was just so fun to find and remember about. I was laughing as I read it and Jake and Allie were in the room, so they came over to see what was up. I read them the letter and Jake said "this guy sure has a big vocabulary. He sounds funny". Allie was just indignant and kept interjecting "gross!" and "Mom!" When I finished the letter, I showed them a picture of Clint at the dance and then showed them who Jarom was (the boy from swim team). I pointed out Natalie (who my kids know only as their friend's "Mom") and several other people that my kids know and Allie was still all grossed out. I asked her what was wrong and she said, "it's weird because you're like Dad's wife and you're holding all these people's hands!" Jake and I were cracking up. I told her that this was long before I ever knew Dad, and it was totally ok. She said "well, I'm never going to do that (hold hands). Jake said "that kind of thing is normal when you get older. You totally will." She kept up her exclamations of how gross it is and Jake and I just laughed. I thought it was funny that Jake was on the side with me. Since when did girls become less gross to him?
Anyway, I know it was a super long post, but I had to share. Some of the pages (in fact most) of my journals should be burned, but this was a gem.
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