Way Back When Wednesday - My first crush

Do you remember your first crush?  If you're a woman, I'm sure you remember it very clearly.  Men might also, but I'm not male, so I can't say for sure.

Anyways, I sure remember my first crush clearly.  It was in 3rd grade, and it started at our ward Christmas party.  I wasn't all that interested in boys, at least not in a romantic way before that point.  I'd always had guy friends but they were just friends.  (PS: This story might not be interesting to anyone but me.  I couldn't think of anything else to write about... sorry!)

So we (my family and I) pulled into the church parking lot, got out, started walking inside, and there he was walking in with his family.  I immediately recognized him as a boy from school, and ran up to say hello.  And some switch flipped in my brain.  The entire night all I could think about was him, and I probably went over to his table and waved or said hello 100 times.  And not normal hellos.  Oh no, these were the giggley, shy, coy waves hellos that are anything but inconspicuous.  I'm sure everyone in the room, or at least at his table knew I had a thing for him.

It took him a while for him to return my affections.  About a week or so later, in Social Studies, as we were putting our bags away, he came up to me and said, "My friend told me that you told people I like you.  Well, I DON'T!"  I was a little hurt (partly because that was mean, and partly because it wasn't true!), but I played it off like it wasn't a big deal in that meh-who-cares sort of way, or at least it seemed to me like I did.  But in another couple of weeks he came around.  I think he must have just been being a typical elementary school boy with a crush on a girl.

We even exchanged love notes; silly 3rd grade love notes, and my mom always had to proof read them.  "To make sure they weren't too romantic," she said.  And on Valentine's Day, he gave me a silk rose delivered by his sisters.  I remember being incredibly embarrassed because I answered the door wearing my pajamas.  White thermals with pastel hearts on them.  I wanted to give him something too, so one time while we were at the grocery store, I saw a notepad and pen with his name on them.  I asked my dad if he would buy it for me to give to my boyfriend.  Amazingly, he agreed to and even delivered it for me while he was delivering something else to his family.  I waited in the car and waved.

Since we were in the same ward, we went to primary together.  One time, we sang a song called, "We are Different."  In it, it says I (verb) you, and you (verb) me multiple times in each verse.  I remember pointing to each other during those parts, especially the last verse where the verb is love. He he, we were silly!

We even ended up being dance partners in our school's music program.  I think the song title was "Baby Face."  Part of the lyrics say, "I didn't need a shove, 'cause I just fell in love with your pretty little baby face!"  On the word "shove" the girls were supposed to fake push their partner down, and the boys were supposed to fall and act all in love.  It worked out pretty well for us.

But the love didn't last long.  Over the summer, we didn't see each other as much without school, and by the first week of the next school year, my friend who was in his class told me that he said he had a girlfriend, in their class.  Awkward for me because I still had a little crush, but we moved in November of that year, so it was easy to move on! :)