I had a very random encounter recently with my first serious crush and it got me feeling nostalgic.
When I was a kid we used to spend a month every summer in North Wildwood at the Jersey Shore (classy I know). We always used to rent the same condo right off the beach but the next building over was a motel where I used to hang out a lot. There were always other kids staying there and they had an arcade that was open to everyone and a pool that you could sneak into really easily. Anyway, Sean was the owner's nephew, he was probably 15 or 16 at the time and he used to work weekdays at this little Italian ice stand attached to the hotel right on the beach. My parents used to give me cash to run up the beach and get Italian ice for myself and my cousins and I must have tried every flavor available twice that summer just for an excuse to talk to him. He was tan with bleach blond hair, board shorts, wifebeater, pooka shell necklace. Basically he was the ideal abercrombie guy of 2001.
I had been noticing guys for a couple years at this point but Sean was the one that actually made me connect the dots on being gay. Eventually I started hanging out by his stand messing around with my skateboard trying to figure out a way to start a conversation. Eventually we started tossing the frisbee around during his breaks which was like, basically my greatest life achievement to up that point. He was part of the same group of long-term summer kids that I would hang out with at night. We managed to build a pretty solid friendship playing manhunt on the beach and going to the boardwalk at night. I even sat next to him on the Scrambler once and he totally touched my leg. This being the early 2000's we even kept in touch on AIM for a few months after school started but then that tapered off. The following summer we went to Cabo instead. I vaguely remember running into him at a beach party when i was 17 or so but by that time i had figured some stuff out and had, I think, a summer boyfriend so i wasn't really as focused on getting his attention.
Anyway, fast forward to the present day, i'm now 26 and a few weeks ago i was vacationing in Australia when this guy catches my eye walking down the Esplanade in Cairns. I thought he looked kind of familiar until i recognized the tattoo on his shoulder. I probably never would have said anything but thanks an optimal number of shots I was feeling brave so i walked over and asked him his name. Turns out Sean is now a dive instructor who leads reef tours in Cairns. He did actually remember me and we even grabbed a beer and caught up. I never actually told him about my dopey kid crush and obviously nothing ever happened. I think he's straight although he still pings my gaydar a little bit. Regardless it was pretty cool to see him again in such a random place and it got me thinking about first crushes. Sean pretty much defined my "type" for a lot of years until a grew up a bit. So who was your first crush? And if you ran into them today what would you say?
When I was a kid we used to spend a month every summer in North Wildwood at the Jersey Shore (classy I know). We always used to rent the same condo right off the beach but the next building over was a motel where I used to hang out a lot. There were always other kids staying there and they had an arcade that was open to everyone and a pool that you could sneak into really easily. Anyway, Sean was the owner's nephew, he was probably 15 or 16 at the time and he used to work weekdays at this little Italian ice stand attached to the hotel right on the beach. My parents used to give me cash to run up the beach and get Italian ice for myself and my cousins and I must have tried every flavor available twice that summer just for an excuse to talk to him. He was tan with bleach blond hair, board shorts, wifebeater, pooka shell necklace. Basically he was the ideal abercrombie guy of 2001.
I had been noticing guys for a couple years at this point but Sean was the one that actually made me connect the dots on being gay. Eventually I started hanging out by his stand messing around with my skateboard trying to figure out a way to start a conversation. Eventually we started tossing the frisbee around during his breaks which was like, basically my greatest life achievement to up that point. He was part of the same group of long-term summer kids that I would hang out with at night. We managed to build a pretty solid friendship playing manhunt on the beach and going to the boardwalk at night. I even sat next to him on the Scrambler once and he totally touched my leg. This being the early 2000's we even kept in touch on AIM for a few months after school started but then that tapered off. The following summer we went to Cabo instead. I vaguely remember running into him at a beach party when i was 17 or so but by that time i had figured some stuff out and had, I think, a summer boyfriend so i wasn't really as focused on getting his attention.
Anyway, fast forward to the present day, i'm now 26 and a few weeks ago i was vacationing in Australia when this guy catches my eye walking down the Esplanade in Cairns. I thought he looked kind of familiar until i recognized the tattoo on his shoulder. I probably never would have said anything but thanks an optimal number of shots I was feeling brave so i walked over and asked him his name. Turns out Sean is now a dive instructor who leads reef tours in Cairns. He did actually remember me and we even grabbed a beer and caught up. I never actually told him about my dopey kid crush and obviously nothing ever happened. I think he's straight although he still pings my gaydar a little bit. Regardless it was pretty cool to see him again in such a random place and it got me thinking about first crushes. Sean pretty much defined my "type" for a lot of years until a grew up a bit. So who was your first crush? And if you ran into them today what would you say?
