And they called it puppy love...

My dad never said it, but it was clear he viewed childhood as bootcamp for life.  The only way to become good at something is to experience it.  He helped me to experience plenty.  But this post isn't about that.  It's about two of my teenage relationships...which were good practice for my adult relationships--in case I ever have any.  lol

I shared the story about my first girlfriend--she was cheating on her real BF with me, I got angry, and got even.  I learned a good lesson from that (I'll never do that again--try to get even).  And I learned one good lesson from the next two.

The 2nd GF was a nice girl, a little silly--a typical 15 year-old.  We talked between classes and occasionally held hands (pretty racy stuff).  She asked to see a picture of me as a little boy.  The ONLY picture I had was my little profile picture--and I only had ONE of those (I didn't know my parents had others).  She "awww'd" appropriately and asked if she could have it.  I thought to myself, "We'll probably break up before the end of the school year, but I'm pretty sure I'm still going to want that picture."  So I said no.  Like any good teenage girl, she was offended.  She broke up with me the next day--but at least I still had my picture!!!  I'll get to the lesson later.

I found the next GF pretty quickly--we had 4 classes together.  There was more talking between classes (she loved to talk) and less hand holding than with #2.  It was getting close to the end of the school year and the girl asked what I would be wearing to the 9th grade dance.  I hadn't asked her yet, but she assumed I would.  I found I didn't care for that.  I told her I hadn't decided whether I was going or not.  She got very pushy about it.  The more she pushed, the longer I decided to wait before asking her.  Finally her nagging got to be too much and I broke up with her.

Yikes, as I'm writing this, for the first time, I see that both girls wanted something from me I wasn't willing to give them (at least not on their terms).  Hmmm, but that's not the lesson.  The lesson was realizing that aside from them being cute/popular, there wasn't really anything I liked about them.  ("Tryin' to lose the awkward teenage blues" maybe?) I was wasting my time and theirs.  Especially mine. :)  That's okay for teenagers--it was a learning experience. 

PS - Another good lesson was learning to say "no" in a relationship.  Oh, and I learned that a girl who never stops talking is not for me.  Apparently I learned more than just one lesson from those experiences.  Also, not surprisingly, I find that "pushy" still makes me dig in my heels.  I don't want to, I just HAVE to!!!  :P