Responsibility

Responsibility

During the summer of 8th grade I happened to stumble upon some old pictures. I decided to skim through them to see if I could find anything interesting. I then ran into a picture of me and my ex girlfriend... Carmen and I sat there stunned for a good minute or two until I came to the conclusion that she actually helped me a lot.

Immediately I started to have flashbacks of how me and her met and realized we were actually really good friends. She used to always help me with my problems whenever I had girl issues, which back then, were a big deal to me. However, one day I broke up with a girl called Elena and I was crushed but Carmen quickly started talking to me. "Luis, don't beat yourself up too much, any girl would be lucky to have you. You're a really dedicated person I know that you'll get better if you try," she said. "Yeah... you're right I shouldn't be too hard on myself. After all I have you here for me," I said. After that we started talking ALOT more.

We eventually became best friends and did almost everything together. One day however I was determined to ask her out on a date just to see what it would be like. "Hey..." I said nervously while trying to get my voice to stop shaking. "Do you want to maybe go on a date sometime? Maybe?" I quickly then thought to myself "why two maybes? This isn't amateur hour, get your crap together!" To my surprise she seemed just as nervous as me and replied with a quiet "Um...sure dude." After a series of celebration dances (which all occurred in my head) we met up at the movies and after a couple hours of awkward breathing and half-assed cuddles, I leaned, in bracing for whatever rejection she might have thrown my way. But to my surprise she didn't and we ended up having our first kiss. "Um... sorry" I said, "It's fine... it was pretty nice."

Months filled with cheap dates and cheesy pictures quickly followed. I was the happiest I had been in a while and suddenly we broke up. Although it was extremely painful, that break up taught me a lesson, I never took relationships seriously up until this one but somehow I managed to screw it up. I pondered over what I could have possibly done to mess up and then made my mind up that I would try to be the best I could possibly be to get her back.

Even more months went by and after trying to be perfect (which I failed at every now and then) we started dating again. Two years flew and after all the memories we shared we broke up for the last time. I didn't feel bad about it though because I knew that I tried my hardest and poured my soul into that relationship. I knew that if it still didn't work, it probably would never work. Carmen then said something I still remember to this day. "If only one person is trying, it won't work out." I used to think she meant that I wasn't trying, but the fact is that she didn't want to try anymore.

Finally 300 ice cream tubs later I can say that I take relationships a bit more seriously. I no longer spend twenty dollars on a date... I spend twenty three yo! In all seriousness I still haven't gotten the chance to thank her for all the memories. The truth is that I still cherish them and every time I see her my stomach gets over run by pterodactyls.

Submitted by Anonymous

Perseverance