Umbrella Girl

I was always the 'nice guy' from my elementary days until the latter part of Middle School. To give you an example of how I would devote myself to complete respect and kindess for a girl I found attractive, I have a story for you. This was read to me by my favorite teacher in 5th grade.

Every night before bed a man and his girlfriend would sit down and make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches together. Each time, the man would always give his girlfriend the bundt of the bread to use while he himself would have two fresh slices. His girlfriend said nothing. For years and years this went on. The girlfriend always endured each sandwich as the man would hand her the bundt every time. One night, she decided to speak up, "I've had it! Every single night you always make me eat the bundt of the bread, and I'm sick of it!"

The man stared at her with a puzzled look and softly said to her, "But honey, I love the bundt."

Ain't that cute? After I heard how much the girls swooned over that story I decided to be as nice and selfless as possible to every girl I ever wanted to get to know better.

One particularly rainy day, I was making my way from where I was dropped off every morning to my middle school. I was probably about 12 at the time. I was fortunate to have been wrapped in an extremely protective sweater and holding onto an umbrella. While I waited at a crosswalk I realized someone had walked up next to me. It was a girl from my school I recognized her immediately as she went to my elementary school as well. She was very attractive but she had never been very friendly. She was not as fortunate as I was, and had only a pink, light hoodie to protect her from the rain and was very visibly cold. She saw that I had an umbrella, and scooted in very close to me, as if she were giving me a sideways hug without wrapping her arms around me.

Being the awkward seventh grader I was I had no idea what to say. I could have remained silent, but when someone is this close to you silence is the last thing you want. So I decided to do the only thing to keep myself from say something stupid for having this extremely pretty girl so close to me. I looked at her and handed her the umbrella and said, "Here" with an added awkward smile and laugh.

She grabbed the umbrella without a word and ran across the crosswalk to the overhang of our school. She handed me the umbrella and walked away silently.

That was the last memory I have of that girl.

wtf

We've all failed. Some of us fail at sports (me), some of us fail at academics (me), and almost all of us fail at connecting with someone we're attracted to (me).

That is why I'm making this blog. To chronicle my own mistakes and shortcomings. Hopefully you can get a good laugh and I can learn from the past.

I will keep all people posted on this blog anonymous. This is to protect the dignity of anyone unhappy in their position in the story. Instead I will be using nicknames that will usually only make sense to me.

In short I hope you get a kick out of my awkward recalling of these situations. Enjoy.