February 12, 2017
Timeless Thoughts: Wooden Roses
Timeless Thoughts is a monthly linkup hosted by Georgie and Tara, where bloggers write about something from their past – it could be an item, a place, an event – anything that evokes a trip down memory lane. Timeless Thoughts is held on the first Saturday of the month and runs for two weeks.
With Valentines Day just around the corner, I wanted to join in with hundreds of other bloggers I’ve seen writing posts about valentines day. Apart from of course, the fact that I’m a hopeless romantic and have spent the previous Valentines Days playing video games (I was there when League of Legends experienced a lot of lag on February 14th, 2016 🙄) so I don’t have any “what to get for your other half on Valentines Day” (in short though: love, appreciation and support 💖) posts lined up – unfortunately.
What I am going share with you today is an old, funny, pretty embarrassing Valentines Day story that I will probably never forget. Also, my friends won’t let me live it down so, here is goes… 🤣
When I was around 14/15, I had a huge crush on a boy in my English class – I’m not ashamed to even say that at the time I thought it was love (my burning question nowadays is: what is love? 🤔) I remember talking about him to my friends all the time and trying to talk to him myself whenever I had the chance to.
What about? You know, about Shakespeare’s sonnets, what his interpretation of “And my heart’s right, thine inward love of heart.” and wishing he, like Shakespeare, would compare me to a summer’s day and you know say I’m more lovely and more temperate. 😂
Valentines Day was coming up and one of my friends was part of a group that was selling DIY wooden roses from their Design and Technology class to celebrate the day. If I remember correctly, you could either buy them for yourself or buy them for someone else. Being the real-life cupids that they were, they also delivered the roses to whoever you bought them for.
So naturallllllly, I force a friend to buy me one. TYSM, ILYSM.
OK, now we’ve got that out of the way…
Being very silly, young and having no shame in declaring my love for this guy, I buy one for him. Writing a message that I can’t even remember now but probably an extract from Shakespeare’s sonnets who knows? I mean, younger me would probably – most likely – had done that. I signed it off with a different name, one from a TV show I was watching at the time and I knew he was aware of too.
I tell my one of my cupid friends to deliver it to him PERSONALLY after their form time, she agrees and I agree to wait around his form room before the next class (which was English, actually)
So the day comes around quicker than expected, I was super nervous but excited to watch his reaction and then admit to him that I gave him that rose which was my way of saying “hey, I really really really like you!” It all played out well in my head but reality hits…
My friend comes out of form first and gives me a quick nod and weird look.
I shortly see him come out, looking very annoyed and laughing with his group of friends, loudly ranting, “What the hell is this. Who the hell would do this? Ugh. I don’t get it, this is so f*cking stupid.”
He then continues to walk towards the direction of the nearest bin, rips the little message into pieces and throws it in the bin, with the wooden DIY rose. IN SLOW MOTION I’D LIKE TO ADD.
It’s funny looking back at it, but at the time I was so upset – I almost skipped English class. But instead sat behind him for 1 painful hour brutally interpreting Shakespeare’s Sonnet 139 😅 I can tell you now that the experience has actually helped me be a lot bolder and all cold hard rejections have brought me to greater things (and people) so keep them coming! 👊🏼
Happy valentines day to those who celebrate it! I hope y’all feel appreciated (you deserve it!!)
I’ll see the rest of you (who aren’t doing anything major) on V-day on Steam/Xbox Live, ya know? 👀
Leave a comment
Thao
LLOOLLLLLL. This is a well treasured share. It’s just too funny and I’m glad you’re able to look back and find the humor in it. And well, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. XD
Jack
Please allow me to apologise on behalf of all teenage boys everywhere. I could talk about how hard it was to be a teenage boy (just as hard as being a girl, I’m sure), about hormones and peer pressure and emotions but what it boils down to is… What he did was cruel and I’m sorry. I’m glad you’re able to look back and laugh at it now but I can only imagine how heartbreaking it must have been at the time.
Beverley
I enjoyed reading this and I am glad you can laugh over the memory now but at the time it must have been pretty awful. That 14/15 age is sometimes so painful to look back on haha! I remember having meaningless crushes on guys and analysing every single interaction with them, even eye contact. I am fairly sure I would sometimes write about them in my journal too (I cringe at the thought). And boys at that age can be so… insensitive, like your English class crush. In ways I wish I were carefree again in those years but I am glad I’ve passed my teens now! Thank you for sharing, Pauline!
Claudine
OMG it’s nice that you can look back on this now and laugh about it, but I can totally imagine how upset you must have been! What a jerk! -_- I’ve never experienced anything similar to this since I didn’t have crushes when I was a teenager (I know, weird right?) but I’ve been in the guy’s position and even though I don’t like the person who gave the gifts, I keep the gifts anyway and treasure them because I know how much effort it took to give those gifts. Lol.
Thanks for sharing this story, it was so fun to read! 😛
Becca
OH MY GOSH. Pauline you are so brave!! I could never have done something like that! I was terrified of rejection, so his response would have had me in tears! What a jerk, though. I thought it was the cutest thing with the Shakespeare quote and the rose! Ugh boys. Who needs ‘em? 😉
It’s funny to look back now on the little crushes we had over some boy back in middle school and to think then that we thought we were in love. Haha, I had so many boy crushes where I was just totally and completely infatuated. But to actually confess my feelings was terrifying, so I never acted on them.
I love your optimism at the end. 🙂 You are clearly better off without the jerk, and you definitely had (and still have) bigger and better things coming. Happy Valentine’s Day Pauline! I’m a little jealous you’re spending it playing Xbox, I haven’t touched mine in a couple weeks! D:
Michelle
OMG, you got me! I never had that happen before and I am glad but I see it depicted in media a lot of the times and wonder how it got started. It’s weird, and interesting. I am so sorry that it happened 🙁 But you have a great attitude about it now and OMG that Adventure Time Finn is great! XD
Cat
I’m glad you’re able to laugh at that story now because that sounds like it would have been an upsetting experience back then! Teenage boys can be so mean! I would have loved to get a wooden rose from someone. What a jerk move to rip up the message like that.
Thanks for sharing though because it was a fun read 🙂 I hope you have a Happy Valentine’s Day! My husband and I normally just cook together and play video games, so I’ll likely be on Steam too 😉
Nana
Omg haha, what he did was such an immature, jerk-y thing to do, but I guess it’s expected from young, teenage boys. I’m glad you’re able to look back at this moment and laugh at it now 😛
Rezina
Omg… my heart feels for 14/15 year old Pauline. I haven’t had something like that happen to me but I did have those teenage crushes on boys who didn’t know you existed LOL And feeling like everything was the end of the world and over analyzing every interaction haha. I remember crushing on someone and he wore this trademark hat in school and I decided to wear one EXACTLY like his and it was so obvious I liked him lmao… I want to cringe just thinking about it >.>
I’m glad we’re no longer at that age! haha
Cristina
That was hell of a story. It’s good that you learned from the rejection and it made you stronger. I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day because unfortunately I don’t have a Valentine :(. But it’s OK. Probably will celebrate with my imagination and we’ll have lots of fun <3. We are great together (unfortunately that's me trying to be funny XD )
Have a great Valentine's day <3