Tonight, my wife and I went out to dinner and found ourselves waiting behind large groups of kids dressed for prom. Watching one large group gathered around a table, I couldn't help but laugh. They all look so obviously confused and uncertain about how to act with the opposite sex, wondering what to do. That was not what made me laugh. What made me laugh is that they probably thought that it would all become more clear in time.
I might have been torn between laughing and crying in that spot.
ReplyDeleteWith the benefit of hindsight, I actually think that it was MUCH clearer then than now. At that age, the only way you know how to project yourself is via silliness and posturing. With time, we learn more complicated tricks that muddle things beyond understanding.
ReplyDeleteI can remember the flush and flutter of just such a prom night, though it was called Spring Formal where I went to H.S. I was wearing a borrowed dress. I was the Freshman date of a graduating Senior. I was far more nervous than he was as he had the benefit of being older and he actually owned his own tuxedo. How sweet to have stumbled on this very awkward and exciting dynamic playing out before your eyes. And you are right, I'm not sure it gets a whole lot easier, especially when we learn the complicated tricks to which Milena refers.
ReplyDeleteThe Good Witch got a good laugh from this! She knows I've never quite figured out how to deal with her, but she humors me and I appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteLooking back, I don't have fond memories of those times when I was full of infatuation and totally incapable of expressing myself.
It's kind of sad that, at the time of your life when your senses and emotions are at their height, you have total immaturity about how to deal with them.
Jennifer h,
ReplyDeleteyou might as well laugh, no?
Milena,
and speaking of laughing, it is a bit of a chuckle to think that we are, indeed, the victims of our sophistication.
cce,
freshman to senior in high school? That sounds like an outrageous age difference until I remind myself that the younger one was the female; this might have cut the difference to about a negative 2 years.
LH,
those were some awkward moments, no? In retrospect, it seems like the only hope we men had is that this competition for a woman's heart was with other men.
shame on me,
ReplyDeletei thought you were still out fishing.