I got this purple book for my Bat Mitzvah and I used it as a journal until I graduated from college...that's a lot of life to recount. Of course, it's only select snippets, but interesting nevertheless. I have several things paper-clipped to the pages in the book including the junior prom ticket, valentines, poems, cards...The thing that a lot of these things have in common, at least during my high school period, was that these were mostly from the same person...my first boyfriend, Dave. That book chronicles my entire love life...all four boyfriends; the last relationship ending five years ago.
What's interesting is that my handwriting hasn't changed but my writing style has grown up with me (as one would expect). I go back and marvel how idealistically I loved the boys that I loved...without worry about the future; it was enough to love them right then. There is no way that I would date Dave or Sean today...we have nothing in common that I would seek in a partner, yet then it made all the sense in the world. Who knew that when Dave and I grew up we would still be tentative friends but fundamentally disagree on a lot of things.
I always found it hard to write my fiction when I had a boyfriend and maybe that was because I was busy writing sappy love scenes about myself than sappy love scenes about people I made up. A part of me wishes I could return to the time when a kiss goodnight (on the cheek, no less) was what I hoped for and it was as uncomplicated as that. No JDate, no compatibility tests...just two teenagers trying to make their way through high school together.
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