An old friend found me on facebook recently. We began talking about old friends and old loves from back in the day. She was telling me about the one that got away, my friend Roger. I reminded her of how she loved him but was afraid to show her feelings because he was a white dude and her friends didn't approve of him, and how she was nice to him in private but avoided him in public (yes, we were in high school).
She said he was the only guy she was attracted to, who treated her right, and she let him slip through her fingers. She said that future relationships failed because all other guys fell short in comparison to the way Roger treated her. She never did get her high school diploma, and she has 4 kids she had to raise by herself. All are grown and out the door and they don't speak to her.
I didn't tell her that Roger went on to marry a beautiful black woman and they're having a great life, and she's a cardiologist and he's a chemical engineer, with 3 beautiful kids, and 2 grandchildren.
"& what did you learn from that experience?" I asked her.
She didn't respond. Roger was crazy about her. The three of us used to study together. She was terrible at algebra and geometry. He used to do her math homework for her, and he even tried to tutor her.
I remember the day he and I was in school and he said hello to her in the hallway on the way to our class, and she snivelled her nose up at him as if he smelled.
I asked her again, "what did you learn from that experience?"
No response.
Then without thinking, I said, "If you'd tried to reach the one you loved just a little bit more, when you almost had them, your life would've been completely different."
and then I wondered if I was also talking about me.
