The art of awesomeness
Okay, so the title is a bit misleading, but I wanted you to read it. “Awesomeness,” for me, is me asking you out on a date, you not showing up, and what I learn from that experience… Pure awesomeness.
This archived article was written by: James Justice
Okay, so the title is a bit misleading, but I wanted you to read it. “Awesomeness,” for me, is me asking you out on a date, you not showing up, and what I learn from that experience… Pure awesomeness.
Last week, I asked a girl to walk with me; let’s call her “Billy Jean.” Before asking her, I went through all the common questions with her, is she married or in a relationship of any type, is she a stalker, what she does for fun, does she bite the heads off of chickens late at night in a cemetery while watching old re-runs of “Star Trek,” etc; you know all the questions you need to know before going on a walk with someone.
To my surprise and personal gratification, she said “yes,” (you need to realize that I haven’t been on a date in over three years, so I was pumped). The day came, I got dressed in my snazzy outfit, put on my five dollar cologne, slicked my hair back, grabbed the flowers I bought and headed over to the USU Eastern track for our rendezvous. I got there a little before our scheduled meeting time, so I decided to sit on the bleachers and wait. Fifteen minutes passed, then 30, 45…all the way up to two hours. At that point I started wondering if she would come. Three hours went by and I decided that she found something better to do.
I took my fine-smelling self, my slicked-back hair, her flowers and walked back to my dorm; throwing the flowers in the trash. I got over it and we’re still friends. She’s too sweet to be mad at, plus she had a good reason—something about restringing her guitar? Or washing her car in the rain? It was something, but honestly I wasn’t listening.
Over the weekend I thought to myself, “What would women think of my situation? Furthermore, what would they think if I said I was the one that stood her up?” So, I started my experiment, just now while writing this article I started thinking to myself, “damn James, you were married eight years, you should know the outcome of this isn’t going to be good!” But, I’m a man and don’t learn easily.
I got a few of my “friend-girls” together at my parent’s house and told them the story of what really happened. They were so sympathetic to me; helping me understand what she could have been thinking, “maybe she’s sick,” “maybe she’s stuck at work”…etc., making excuses for her. But, they really helped me feel better as I was pretty banged up about it. Since these girls heard the true side of the story I couldn’t tell them the “I stood her up,” side of the story so I waited until I got back to USU Eastern.
Today I was sitting in the newspaper class and we were discussing the different articles for the paper: how great the paper looked, the ads, the layout, etc., when I got the idea of bringing the false story up to these students and Dr. Polster. I started into the story of how I didn’t really want to take her out, she wasn’t a 10 on my “hotness scale,” (though I do want to take her out and she’s about an 18 billion on the gorgeous scale, she’s not a 10), so I stood her up.
To put it simply, the reaction wasn’t a good one. My father always taught me that if you want to get to know someone bring up a subject on which they’ll get “passionate” about and you’ll see who they really are, what they’re made of, (I think the word “passionate” would be the understatement of the world for this conversation). Me and the different students in the room were quite “passionate” about our viewpoints and while Dr. Polster didn’t say anything she did have a look like, “what in the hell is wrong with you James?” She makes me laugh!
Through this horribly-painful-crushing experience, of me getting stood up by my gorgeous friend, I learned what amazing people we have here on The Eagle newspaper staff. The “awesomeness,” I spoke of in this article is what I saw today; passionate, wonderful, truthful students, defending what they believe in. I’m so proud to be around them… absolutely awesome!
In the movie; “The Last of the Mohicans,” there’s a line that I believe applies to my situation: “Do not try to understand them [women], and do not try to make them understand you. That is because they are a breed apart and make no sense.”
On a more serious note, you should never stand someone up. If you don’t want to go just politely say no or tell them you’d be more comfortable in a group than by yourselves. It takes a lot of courage and confidence to ask someone out. Even though I’m older than most of the students here at USU Eastern, I’m 31, it took a lot out me. Makes me second-guess the whole thought of getting back into the dating scene. Maybe in another three years I’ll ask someone out again, but probably not.
