Basketball Diaries

When I was in the 4th and 5th grades I was into books more than boys. That's normal right? I was on a quest to read every Nancy Drew book written, and I eventually did, and started on The Hardy Boys series. My best friend Adrianne and I used to pull out our books the instant we sat down in the school lunchroom. We didn't talk to each other all through lunch most days, and were most commonly seen after lunch heading out to the playground side by side, with our noses in our books, using our peripheral vision as well as the automaticity of walking the same steps everyday to get there. We were too consumed by our books to care about anything else going on around us. We would head out to the far end of the playground where there was a little pine tree that gave just enough shade to cover two young bookworms, and stay there until the whistle blew, forcing us to finish  the page before we got
back to the building. There were days that we talked, and days that we played, but mostly, we read. It was perfect, two awkward preteens that could finish a book and trade midweek, not having to make another trip
to the library.

There was only one thing that consistently tore us away from our books... my pursuit of Leo. I had decided years earlier that I was going to marry him. I had decided I was going to marry someone that went to my church, so I stood up in front of the pew my siblings were sitting on, stuck out my finger and spun around a few times.When I finished, I was pointing at the biggest nerd in my grade. Well... I definitely wasn't going to marry him (though he later turned out to be a really great guy, I found). I spun again and my finger was pointing right at Leo. Perfect! He was my age, he was a cute kid, and we were destined to be together!! There was only the minuscule problem that he hated me. Well, looking back, I'm not sure he actually hated me, but there were signs of it. Once he made fun of my red hair, and then that I was short, and then that my skin was so pink. I'm sure he didn't know what blushing was at the time. Another time I got a bloody nose and he acted like it was a very catching deadly disease. This was before any blood borne diseases would have been known to a 6 year-old. His mom watched us after school one day, and he played with my brown-haired brother and sister, but I may as well have not been there. There are many times he treated me with disdain, or with outright cruelty, but I was steadfast and true in my love for him, sure that it was only a matter of time before he would fall in love with me. I admired the way he played basketball, the way he had so many friends, and more than anything else, his talent for drawing.

The 6 year old turned into a 9 year old, and my infatuation was still very much intact. We were never in the same class at school, but once his teacher brought him to our class to show off a picture he'd drawn. I melted. I was just discovering my own drawing talents and was sure this was a sign. I looked at Adrianne and she knew just what I was thinking. We concocted a plan to make him see that I was his one and only someone. Books went inside our desks for a few weeks as we saved up lunch treats, a few coins here or there, and won contests... all to secure a full set of basketball cards. He was always playing basketball, so we knew that to get a complete set of the basketball cards everyone seemed to have only pieces of, would definitely get his attention. We saved and traded until we had them all, and then wrapped them in a red ribbon and put a little note with it. I don't remember now exactly what our plan was to get them to him, but I think it was the recess after lunch that we had someone else give them to him, and had them say it was from me, or something to that effect. Adrianne and I were so excited that I was finally going to be with my true love, and we waited anxiously for news. None came. The bell finally rang and as we came over to the basketball court to be sure he had even gotten them, we saw them. Well, we saw the red ribbon, and we saw lots and lots of pieces of basketball cards blowing across the ground. I was heartbroken. My poor little heart, torn to shreds and blowing across the playground. That was my first taste of rejection. My advice to you is this, young girls, don't choose the man you're going to marry before he loves you... and don't buy him basketball cards until he's already yours. Major waste of time and effort. All these years later, I remember the valuable lesson he taught me on that basketball court.

This can be applied to the not as young girls too ;)