awwwwwkward

[aroraborealis]

So, Captain Awkward has a post up about a time she had a totally awkward crush and completely failed to handle it gracefully, with a love note and everything, and then she invites people to use the comments section to share their painful moments of horrifying behavior (on their own part). I invite you to share yours here (anonymously if you prefer

Comments

[sandhawke]

Wait, what? Was it anonymous or not? How could he know if he felt the same way if he didn't know who it was from?

(I have an anonymous note story that's too embarassing to type.)

[aroraborealis]

EXACTLY.

I signed it "anonymous" but then demanded a response and gave him my locker number.

Truly, the mind boggles.

(I almost couldn't type this one up, and then I decided I could laugh at myself and give that foolish past-me a compassionate little hat-tip without too much pain.)

[sandhawke]

So, in your school, given someone's locker number, was it obvious whose locker it was? Or would he have to run a surveillance operation to figure it out...?

I guess the key here is some kind of distance. In the thread you refer to, there's a whole thing about a Couch of Plausible Deniability. It's not even exactly deniability, but just some kind of distance/excuse/indirection makes it a little more bearable.

[aroraborealis]

Oh, yes, all you'd have to do is hang around that locker and wait for someone to unlock it. I had talked myself into thinking that I could make like I was receiving a note on someone else's behalf, but that totally didn't work, because as soon as someone said, "So, you have a crush on Mark?" I was all, "Yes, what of it?"

[blk]

Wow, my awkward crush (well, the one that currently comes to mind) was also in 8th grade! Boy what an awwwwwwesome time that was

[dpolicar]

I won't tell the story. But the lesson I take away from it is that if I want to talk to someone it really helps to invite them to the damned conversation.

That word

[drwex]

That's rather the definition of "conversation", innit?

Re: That word

[aroraborealis]

You'd be surprised.

Re: That word

[drwex]

Probably. And I'm sorry but I'm still way too mortified by my pre-adult self's inability to deal with romantic attractions to reveal them even semi-publicly.

Let's just say I was a hopeless idiot and leave it at that.

[ceo]

Never in a million years when I was in JH or HS would I have breathed a word about any crushes I had to anyone, ever, particularly not the crush-ee. (We won't discuss whether that is still the case to any extent.)

But that didn't get me the Get Out Of Awkwardness Free card, because at one point I became aware that someone had a huge crush on me, for reasons I'm still unclear on (and if you think I'm being gratuitously self-deprecating, that's because you didn't know me in high school). Someone told me without revealing who it was, and it was obvious enough even I figured it out pretty quickly. I am actually grateful that she never said anything, because I would have had no idea how to handle it.

[metagnat]

I have a similar awkward teenaged crush story that involves sending an actual signed note (after months of agonizing). There was a fundraiser for something (I think it was the school paper, where they'd send carnations to the person of your choosing on valentine's day for a dollar and you could write a note to go with them.

I sent my crush one with a poem from a Tolkien novel (Yes. Auuugh.) and a short note.

Sadly, I'm sure on the right person, that would've worked a treat. The right person was clearly not this guy.