This is one of my most vivid memories I have of me in elementary school. All the children were sitting on the floor for a puppet show and there she was; sitting doing absolutely nothing. Yet something in my brain flipped and I ended up having my first crush.

So, what does a nine year old do to get the attention of his crush? In my case, I just followed her along all the time without saying anything. It was so bad to the point she told her parents and they confronted me saying I should never get near her again. I simply just blanked out and ignored what they said because I still followed her, just less often.

Eventually I started to go on the internet to find out how to make a girl interested in me. Therefore, I ended up begging my mother to buy me stuff that I could give to her; for example, for valentines day I gave her a stuffed teddy bear. I mean, she really liked the gifts and would tell me I was so sweet and nice. Then why didn’t she like me? Well, thats simple she has had a boyfriend ever since I first started liking her.

Young me didn’t really see this as an obstacle. In soccer, just because theres a goalie doesn’t mean one can’t score. Anyhow, there was also the issue on how her parents were very strict and didn’t really let her date anyone. Therefore, in my eyes she didn’t really have a boyfriend (but even though her parents were very close on getting a restraining order on me, I thought I had a chance????).

Moreover, I ended up writing and singing her songs, buying her chocolate and all that sort of stuff. But besides being nice and considerate, I also did irredeemable things like spitting on her.

Don’t worry, it wasn’t intentional, sorta. Me and my friends were doing spitting contests from the second floor, it just so happened that she walked right past as I was spitting. Besides that, a group of people were bullying her by grabbing her water bottle and throwing it around.

I thought she would think I was cool if I joined in, so I grabbed it and threw it. The person ended up not being able to catch it, thus the bottle breaking and her starting to cry.

Finally, she was kinda officially dating her “boyfriend” but I thought that spreading rumors that they broke up would give me a chance. One of her friends caught wind of this and told her. Big yikes, I know.

There was never really any bad blood between us though. She was a nice girl and kinda understood I never really wanted to hurt her. This whole ordeal lasted from 4th grade up until 6th grade when I moved and transferred schools.

Years later, my mother had bumped into her mother and she had mentioned how she still had and adored the teddy bear I got her. I even saw her recently two years ago and she happilly went to me and hugged me to greet me.

It was nice to see her again and see the excitement she had to see me. I hold her, like many other of my friends in elementary school, dearly and deeply in my heart and it makes me glad to know she has something to cherish about me.