Like many young people, I wasn’t happy with my body. One day I was invited to go to a water park so I had to wear a swimsuit. I was probably 10 and I felt like I looked like Don Knotts. I watched my fair share of Three’s Company on the side.
So because we had to carry small mats to slide down the slides on, I could use them to help cover up my body. The unfortunate thing was that there were lots of stairs and a concrete path on certain rides that you had to climb to get up to the top. Just by chance, I happened to keep running into this cute girl my age named Sandy who was going up at the same time as me. We started to talk while walking up the stairs and she asked if came here often. I said no, I live out of town and I was with my relatives. She was quiet for a moment and said
“So you are only here today?”
“Yes, so I only get to see your smile for a little while,” I said.
“Oh. I’m sorry to hear that. I think you are cute.” she said.
I blushed. I hadn’t had someone I had met be so direct and I wasn’t sure what to say. “Oh, I bet you say that to all the guys you met here” I joked.
“No only the ones that I like,” she said and smiled big at me.
I learned that day that it doesn’t take much time to get to feel comfortable with someone, you just have to be friendly and give people a chance.