Just when I start to hate the internet, it goes and makes me fall in love with it all over again.

I once had a “friend” who told my parents that I was “boy crazy.” This friend told my parents that I talked about boys non stop and that they should watch me carefully. Naturally, I got in big time trouble. How dare I like boys! I was supposed to ONLY LOVE JESUS. Anyway, thanks to my loud mouth, holier than thou, asshole of a friend, my parents thought that I was crazy about boys and watched me VERY CLOSELY, in case I, you know, started humping boys. The truth is, I can count on one hand the boys that I was “crazy”about in elementary school.
Bobby, David, Orel Hershiser (Yes, *that* Orel Hershiser.), Brad and Marty.
Marty was the secret love of my entire 6th grade life. He was smart, artistic and as my 12 year old self would say soooOoOOo funny! Of course, Marty never liked me back. Which was the case with most boys that I liked throughout my entire school aged life.
If I could find my diary from 6th grade, I am sure this is what it would look like:

Dear Diary,
I got kicked out of class again today. Mr.Teeter made me sit on the benches until art was over. It was Marty’s fault. He made me laugh like he always does. but he never gets in trouble!!!! But it’s ok, I still love Marty because he’s sooooo cute and soooooo funny.
Love,
Me.
Dear Diary,
I got sent to the principals office today. I brought a bandana to hit Marty back with, because he hits me with his every day! But I got in trouble because mine had too many rubberbands on it and the principal said I could hurt someone really bad with it. Marty never gets in trouble for anything, but I always do. But I still love him. He’s such a babe!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Me.

The entire year went by and Marty didn’t try to hold my hand or french kiss me behind any buildings, which was okay because I had no idea how to french kiss. (And sadly, when I had my first kiss as a SOPHOMORE IN HIGH SCHOOL, I still was clueless.) I was secretly devastated that he never liked me back, but you know, I was 12 and there were games of foursquare to be played, so life went on.
I’ve always wondered what happened to Marty, in that “where are they now” kind of way. Did he get married? Have kids? Did he still live in California? Was he a comedian? An artist? I may have even googled his name a time of 6, but nothing ever came up.
A couple of weeks ago, for reasons I can’t remember, I logged onto my classmates account. I hadn’t logged in to that account in over a year, maybe even 2. I looked over the names of people who had signed my guestbook. I saw a man who I did not recognize. His name was Marty, but a different last name then Marty from 6th grade. Curious, I clicked on his name and HOLY SHIT! It was that Marty. The babe of a boy that I had loved for an entire year was right there before my eyes, except, he was a man now. And it was a little strange, but mostly incredibly awesome. I couldn’t resist, so I sent him an email. I figured he probably didn’t remember me, but what the hell, I wanted to say hello.
He did remember me. We did a little bit of catching up. In one of the emails, he mentioned that we went to junior high together. I thought he was wrong because surely, I would remember attending the same junior high as he did! But, junior high was the worst 2 years of my entire teenage life and apparently, I have blocked most of those two years from my memory to protect my delicate little heart from the pain. I searched for my “85” year book and found it. A couple of pages in, I found this:
marty
There was Marty, with my Totally Rad Signature Exclamation Point. (Bonus: me standing in the back of the rally with my blue trapper keeper!)
And it all came flooding back to me. We did attend the same junior high school and my crush continued for most of 7th grade, but apparently, he couldn’t read my mind, or my body language, which I’m sure was to run away every time I saw him because YOU CAN GET PREGNANT FROM JUST STANDING CLOSE TO BOYS! I guess Marty only liked girls who “were allowed to wear clothes that were in fashion.” or “allowed to shave their hairy legs.” or girls who “didn’t have to sit in the car in front of the school before school started and pray with their dads while their dads made them lift their hands and worship The Lord because YOU SHOULDN’T BE ASHAMED TO WORSHIP THE LORD IN FRONT OF YOUR FRIENDS.”
Anyway.
We emailed back and forth a couple of times and did a little catching up. It was exciting and fun– it always is when you reconnect with someone who you adored in your past. It’s nice to know after all of these years that he’s had a good life and that he’s just as artistic, funny, smart as I remember him being 25 years ago
P.S.[Little Voice]He’s still a total babe[/Little Voice]

32 thoughts on “Just when I start to hate the internet, it goes and makes me fall in love with it all over again.”

  1. Annika

    I’ve been finding and catching up with old school friends and enemies, and it is so neat to ‘meet’ those people as adults. I haven’t tracked down any of my major crushes yet, though. I don’t have the nerve.

  2. Joelle

    I’ve totally done that. I had a huge crush on this guy, Mike Borrelli. Or Borelli. or something like that. He totally ‘didn’t know I was alive’. And I was also “a big dork”, which may have explained it.
    Naturally, I ran into him in a dive bar 20 years later looking like utter hell, having just come from the gym.

  3. Amy

    How cool, Y! I love reconnecting with people and seeing how people have changed (or haven’t). It’s always fun. I had several boyfriends and many, many, MANY crushes in elementary school and high school. The one boyfriend who exhausted most of my energy and treated me like crap? Is now a drunk with moobs! I loves me some karma!

  4. mary

    The mere fact you liked Orel should have put your parents mind at ease that you liked the “good” ones. Jeez, did they come any nicer than Orel? He was almost Jesus himself on the mound.
    It’s fun catching up with people from the past. I totally had a dream about my hs crush, Mark Ak.rid.ge last night. I blame the Theraflu. It was one hot dream, though.

  5. The Aitch

    I love u so much right now. I’ve been catching up with my first love from high school on facebook the last couple of months. It’s kind of thrilling. I mean he has a wife and family and I have my husband and all that so it’s strictly platonic, but we did talk about how his parents walked in on us making out and how and why he broke my heart.
    The best part? He still thinks I’m cute!

  6. Louise

    We moved around alot when I was a kid (my parents were military) so I was always leaving my friends behind. And when you’re a kid in the 80s/90s and there’s no Internet, you pretty much lose touch with people after a couple of months. Facebook is an incredible tool – I mean I was never super popular but finding friends from when I was 12? Is awesome.
    So the big question – How come Marty has a different last name now?

  7. jessie

    If anyone has any mad juju internet skillz and could help me find my ex boyfriedn who stole my childhood teddy bear, I would be forever grateful. Seriously. Stole my teddy bear!!!

  8. maya

    that so reminds me of waking up from a dream a couple of months ago where i was dreaming about this boy david that i went to high school with. i started thinking about how he would tell me that i needed to be more of a Christian and how pissed off that made me. but then i started thinking about how he would chase me around the laundry where we worked together and then finally he’d catch me, pick me up in his arms, and put me in the giant industrial dryer. i started laughing until i realized that DAVID TOTALLY LIKED ME. and i’m guessing that the reason he never told me he liked me is because i wasn’t enough of a christian.
    i totally would’ve corrupted him if he’d let me.

  11. SJ

    Oh Y, this post rocked my socks off!
    I too have thought about ‘the boy’ that I had a super duper big crush on back in the day. I have managed to find his younger brother (BOO!) but as much as I’ve tried, he won’t give up his older brothers (aka my total crush) information. I bet my boy crush is a total babe still too! It’s fun catching up with old friends…..

  12. Mary Jo

    I can never find any of the guys I used to like!! UGH! LOL… they are all still hiding from me. How sweet that you got caught up though!! 🙂

  13. Kristie

    Hey, you’re right … Marty was a total babe, in that 1970’s way! My “Marty” was a boy named “Richard” … no clue whatever happened to him, but I can’t hear “Afternoon Delight” without remembering him fondly. 🙂
    Thanks so much for sharing!

  15. H.

    I have had that same experience…I just caught up with a boy on Facebook who was an ass to me at church in 1983 when I told him I had a crush on him. I messaged him “do you remember me?” and he didn’t, so I reminded him, leaving nothing out. He said he knew he was an ass back then and apologized profusely, now we are friends.

  16. Tammy

    I recently got in touch with my first love, from high school, as well. He’s still gorgeous, but I still know that we were totally wrong for each other! Fun, though, to see where everyone is!

  18. mickey

    I’ve been trying to work up the nerve to contact my high school crush. I’ve found him on facebook, and his band on MySpace, but can’t quite bring myself to ask if he remembers me.
    So why does Marty have a different last name now?

  19. Jackie

    Wow… didn’t expect THAT ending. Thought for sure he was fat and bald and working at [insert job that everyone fears but won’t admit in case someone else reading has that job].
    I googled an ex once and discovered he now directs porn. Not all that surprising. He was not one to pray to Jesus before school.

  20. Dory

    Ah, yes… Mine was Eric Reese. *sighs*
    Re: your pa and Lord praisin’ in the car in front of school… how did you turn out as normal as you did?! 🙂

  21. Shellie

    Wow… California boys were cute! They look like extras from the “Karate Kid.”
    I tried checking out everyone I could remember from high school on Facebook. The boy that was the absolutely cruelest to me in high school added me to his list at my masochistic request. We have never exchanged a single word… but I see that he is divorced, bald, and chubby… and it makes life a little sweeter.

  23. ajnabi

    Marty was so cute, but I would’ve gone for the blondie in the front of the pic. LOL I’m glad you had a happy ending to your Internet search; every time I touch base with someone from my past I end up remember how awful I felt about myself for the first eighteen years of life and just want to run and hide.
    Also, this? “didn’t have to sit in the car in front of the school before school started and pray with their dads while their dads made them lift their hands and worship The Lord because YOU SHOULDN’T BE ASHAMED TO WORSHIP THE LORD IN FRONT OF YOUR FRIENDS.” Is genius. I laughed so hard I woke my husband up.

  24. Hilary Kay

    Blake Wagner, always made me laugh and I was always the one to get in trouble.. *Sigh* 3rd grade seems so long ago, but man, I wonder where he’s at now…
    Ps- “my first kiss as a SOPHOMORE IN HIGH SCHOOL” Yeh, I win. Freshman in college and am still waiting 😉

  25. DeborahB

    Ha! I bet he’s kicking himself now for not paying you any attention back then, because now you’re gorgeous, famous, and insanely popular on the net. His loss! As an aside, I went to my 30th HS reunion and reconnected with my 7th grade boyfriend. He was as sweet (and a little dorky) as I remember. My husband who went with me, said “You liked HIM??” Ah youth!

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