"The Time I Got Curved" by Adam B

            Throughout high school, I have fallen victim to the constant want for a relationship. While it’s very understandable why one would want a relationship, as a significant other is very appealing, it should not be one’s primary focus in high school. However, too often I have let my desires take over my actions, and become a main focus throughout high school. While this has progressively gotten worse, it stemmed from a previous relationship that had fallen through, one where I was not completely satisfied with the ending. This unsatisfactory ending had given me the persistence to keep trying continuously to fall into a relationship, even at times when it was wiser for me to focus on school work rather than just one girl. However, as high school progressed and I began to enter my senior year, I encountered one rejection that changed my whole outlook on what I was doing.

            In the beginning of senior year over the next couple of months, I had fallen for one particular girl, deemed impossible to win over by both myself and my peers.. Although seemingly impossible, I had decided to give it my all and go for said girl. While I shall not address her personally, I shall give her an epithet; Alyssa Tandoc (she allowed me to use her name). As said before, Alyssa was seemingly impossible, but my persistence had lead me to believe that she could be “the one”. Although I failed numerous times to get into a relationship before this, for some odd reason I continued to carry on with the chase. I then proceeded to being the process of going for this impossible yet seemingly amazing girl, as I constructed my 36 month plan to get into a relationship with the girl. Although I had such careful planning and the persistence to go with the plan, a measly 4 days into the process is where the plan started to go down hill. I decided to make a small move, asking her to homecoming. While this decision did not come easily, I decided to go for it, as it was senior year and I could only think, “Why not?” While it took a few weeks to decide what to do and how I should ask, I finally created the plan I believed would be foolproof. With a mixture of her favorite movie, flowers, and cupcakes, I had worked up the courage to finally ask her. I received a surprising and hopeful answer of “yes”, giving me confidence as I could see and feel the happiness she had on her face when I revealed the poster asking her to homecoming. Homecoming was extremely fun, but it ultimately lead to a few problems that marked the beginning of a fall through. I had developed a sense of confidence that made me more detached from the “chase”, as she ultimately lost interest in me. This confidence had given me a false sense of security and hope, as I believed that maybe she could be the one I was looking for all throughout high school. I had lead myself on and realized that ultimately, rejection would soon follow.  

            While my endeavors were for naught, I still learned a valuable lesson and changed my outlook on how to find my own happiness. After different confrontations with my own thoughts and input from my friends, I learned that relying on others for happiness is not the way to go about living. One of the main reasons I personally went for a relationship was merely for the happiness it appeared to bring about. While relationships at this stage in life are very appealing, most of the time they show no other importance other than the development of each other’s characters. However, this is not important if I fail to realize that I must further change and develop myself first before I could help any other person become the best they could possibly become. Another lesson learned was to never expect anything to happen. One particular friend of mine helped me realize to never look for expectations. If we expect good things to happen to us and we never act upon these things, then we will get nothing accomplished. High school has become a learning process for me, and while many of us would like to have a memory we can reflect upon for happiness during high school, many of us should realize that this is a transitional phase. As I remember my high school years, I wish to look back and see how I have developed my own character and see how far I’ve progressed.