When I Met My First Crush

Dedicated to Bean

I can remember the day he first walked in my life. I was in the 7th grade. I knew it was a crush because I had this bubble gut feeling giving me the shivers every time I saw him. We all have these feelings that come and go quickly, but this wasn’t no ordinary crush. His face left an everlasting impression on the right side of my brain, where I constantly had dreams about him everyday. I was a little behind other students when it came to crushes. They constantly talked about which guy or girl they liked. Some even had girlfriends or boyfriends at the age of five. But for me, I was different. I use to be real quiet, a contradictory to what I am now. I was a military brat, and I moved every three years so I had few close friends. But in the 7th grade, I found a friend in him. We both had the passion for the game of basketball, and that made us even more compatible. He was also a big Lakers fan, and everyone knows how I feel about the Lakers. It was just something about him that stood out to me and told me he was special. I stayed in contact with him as the years passed, and I entered high school.
Our distance was so far, I knew I would never be able to see him. I was in Germany, and he was in the United States. When I was in middle school, he had a fro so that was the image that stayed in my dreams. My mom approved of him. Just like a father would do, my dad disapproved of him. I didn’t even understand why. Yes, he had his fair share of getting into trouble. Every young man does, but I never judged him. It hurt me that he was going through so much in his life from his family abandoning him to people not liking him. I could not abandon him at this moment because he was my first crush. He eventually got through all these obstacles in life. Now I’m 23-years-old. It’s funny how I never had the opportunity to tell him that he was my first crush. But I knew he was always going to someone great even when no one saw it. Well, since he may so happen come across this embarrassing outpour of me expressing how much he meant to me growing up, I’ll just say this to him, I’m glad to hear about your recent success, obtaining 5 rings had to be difficult. Hopefully, I can one day watch you play before you retire because I never had the opportunity to tell say to you, “Kobe Bryant, You were first crush.”