R U Kidding?? − October, 2007
I have an admirer from my past. My long past, as in 24 years ago. I had joined classmates.com at some point and forgotten about it. I didn’t want to reconnect with my classmates that badly. The worst part of high school for me had been my peers. Kids can be cruel, and I was not a popular girl.
classmates.com notified me that I had a message from “Dr. XYZ” (name changed for obvious reasons). Wow, I thought. I guess I’ll check it out. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw what the message said:
i still love u
Someone still loves me after 24 years? I didn’t even know he loved me in the first place! We had hardly talked! I wrote back a cautious message asking whether the “Dr..” was an M.D., a Ph.D., or an M.D./Ph.D., just to keep the conversation going. A few days later I got a response that consisted simply of a URL to the Dr.’s miracle pill website. Oh, boy, I thought, this guy’s kind of a quack. But the site was interesting in that it displayed a picture of my old classmate. He looked like a normal person.
In high school he’d been an awkward, shy, nerdy guy who’d been teased by our classmates. We were in AP English together. I’d always gone out of my way to be nice to him so he wouldn’t feel completely alone. I’d been teased plenty at various points in my childhood, so I knew what it felt like. A month or so later, I got another notification from classmates.com about a message from Dr. XYZ. This message said:
r u still skinny with long hair?
I had to laugh at this one. How we freeze our childhood peers in the past. I wrote back:
r u kidding?? I wish! But I haven’t lost all my charms…
I didn’t want him to think that I was an unattractive slob, because I’m not. But I am heavier and no longer wear the down-to-my-waist hair that he remembers. The next message I got from Dr. XYZ thanked me for being so nice to him. He acknowledged that he had not been very handsome. I wrote back to say that looks aren’t everything, and obviously it was his mind that had gotten him where he is. Besides, I wrote, looks fade.
I haven’t heard from Dr. XYZ since. I liked our interaction, and was relieved that it hadn’t gone down any awkward roads. I’d taken a risk by writing back, not knowing whether I would open a Pandora’s box of lovesickness and unwanted wooing.
classmates.com notified me that I had a message from “Dr. XYZ” (name changed for obvious reasons). Wow, I thought. I guess I’ll check it out. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw what the message said:
i still love u
Someone still loves me after 24 years? I didn’t even know he loved me in the first place! We had hardly talked! I wrote back a cautious message asking whether the “Dr..” was an M.D., a Ph.D., or an M.D./Ph.D., just to keep the conversation going. A few days later I got a response that consisted simply of a URL to the Dr.’s miracle pill website. Oh, boy, I thought, this guy’s kind of a quack. But the site was interesting in that it displayed a picture of my old classmate. He looked like a normal person.
In high school he’d been an awkward, shy, nerdy guy who’d been teased by our classmates. We were in AP English together. I’d always gone out of my way to be nice to him so he wouldn’t feel completely alone. I’d been teased plenty at various points in my childhood, so I knew what it felt like. A month or so later, I got another notification from classmates.com about a message from Dr. XYZ. This message said:
r u still skinny with long hair?
I had to laugh at this one. How we freeze our childhood peers in the past. I wrote back:
r u kidding?? I wish! But I haven’t lost all my charms…
I didn’t want him to think that I was an unattractive slob, because I’m not. But I am heavier and no longer wear the down-to-my-waist hair that he remembers. The next message I got from Dr. XYZ thanked me for being so nice to him. He acknowledged that he had not been very handsome. I wrote back to say that looks aren’t everything, and obviously it was his mind that had gotten him where he is. Besides, I wrote, looks fade.
I haven’t heard from Dr. XYZ since. I liked our interaction, and was relieved that it hadn’t gone down any awkward roads. I’d taken a risk by writing back, not knowing whether I would open a Pandora’s box of lovesickness and unwanted wooing.
online now
Comments:
intrepideddie (March 5, 2008. 01:27am)
That was a bit weird -- and it didn't freak you out at all? I don't know if I can bring myself to register on sites like classmates.com. Sure would be fun to find out what everyone is doing now, though.
peahayes (March 5, 2008. 03:33am)
It freaked me out a little, and I was afraid to tell my husband that I'd replied to Dr. XYZ, but I 'fessed up after it was clear that nothing bad was going to happen, and he was cool with it.
Oblivious (March 26, 2008. 02:53am)
Yeah, that could have certainly ended less pleasantly. A good reminder to be nice to everyone, because you never know if someone's going to creep up from your past and stab you.