Jeremy ~ Day28 (Birthday Thanks)

Birthday Thanks is a 31 day blog challenge focusing on people who have influenced, shaped, affected and changed my life. My birth was awesome but my ALMOST 28 years of living has been enhanced by the people I’ve met along the way.

If anyone was ever my superhero, it was Jeremy. I think the story of Jeremy and I fit every cliché, lifetime movie, and cheesy summer romance novel that almost was but never happened. I’m only going to give you a small snippet of our story. I met Jeremy in the summer of 95 while riding my bike throughout the neighborhood. I kept my distance from him but I definitely noticed him. When the fall rolled around and I began 6th grade, I saw him more. I also put two and two together. He lived in the same apartment building as me. It explained why I saw him as often as I did that summer.

Even with attending junior high with him, I only noticed him from a distance. He quickly joined the basketball team. He quickly became popular. He was the opposite of who I was. I was a nerd with thick glasses, a side pony tail and the teacher’s pet. I didn’t realize he knew my name. That is until some silly boy slapped my ass in the hallway one day. That ass slap made me feel cheap, used and whorish. I was a conservative christian girl who never looked twice at boys and from listening to my friends remember our childhood, some thought I was asexual. After that ass slap, I withdrew further into myself. I was already a mysterious, bible thumping quiet enigma with a dark secret but now I felt cheap.

Jeremy found out about the ass slap from the rumor mill. He found me in the hallway between class one day and insisted on hearing my side of the story. The conversation is mostly a blur but I remember him saying, ‘You can tell me anything and I’ll protect you.” I’m not sure what Jeremy or his friends did to that boy but I do know that after two years of being the victim of physical, verbal and now sexual bullying & harassment, I NEVER endured it again.

I, the ultimate geek was now partnered with the most popular boy in school who happened to be the captain of the basketball team. You know they write movies about this mushy shit? LOL. Well, I lived it. Somewhere during that 6th grade year, Jeremy did ask me to be his girlfriend but I told him, “I don’t believe in that. I believe in Jesus.” (insert hindsight eye roll.) Jeremy went on to date a lot of girls. I went on to read more books and bible verses but for those three years of junior high we were best friends. I tutored him, shared bible verses with him. He taught me a bit about the world and gave me the ultimate protection.

Jeremy was the ONLY boy I was allowed to spend time with alone. My conservative parents let me call him on the phone and hang out at his apartment. It was unheard of! Now of course during this entire time I had a crush on Jeremy. A HUGE freaking crush but I never acted on it because Jesus and school were more a priority to me at the time.

As the years progresses Jeremy and I grew apart then we’d reconnect. Time would pass and we’d grow apart again and then reconnect. I recall telling a lover once how much Jeremy meant to me in a random conversation on a car ride around town and hours later when we stopped at a store, guess who the fuck walked into the store at the SAME TIME…. JEREMY. The power of our connection from years ago seemed to summon that reunion. Prior to that I hadn’t seen Jeremy in years!

A few years later, Jeremy and I reconnected again. He came to my apartment and we talked for HOURS. He told me that he had kept every letter I had ever written him in junior high. He told me how he used to name drop my name when he got in trouble and he’d get a pass because the principal knew my reputation for Jesus and books and nothing else. It was a great conversation.

Oh, before I even get to the juicy part, during college I missed Jeremy a lot. I wished we had remained as close as we were when I was a child. As I often do, rather that journal about it, I wrote a fictional story about the story of us. In the story there’s this magical moment where the Jeremy and Sheena character kiss and of course the world becomes a better place.

Back to the story of Jeremy at my apartment. We’re talking for hours and then there is this moment when we kiss. It was sweet, beautiful and honestly everything my junior high self had imagined it would be. Nothing ever became of that kiss. We didn’t go on to become lovers or a couple and neither did it magically make us best friends again. We just had a moment that was destined to happened.

Jeremy was my Dawson Leery. He knew me. He protected me. He was always sweet and kind to me. He insisted that everyone treat me with respect. He made sure I was included. He always checked in to make sure I was ok. He listened to me. He wrote me letters just as I wrote them to him. He was intentional about spending time together whether we were in junior high or the years after.

He was that boy. You know exactly what I mean.

Jeremy will ALWAYS have an incredible, special place in my heart. Junior high can be tough. Kids can be cruel. And stupid boys will randomly slap a girl’s ass. Without even knowing me, Jeremy put on a metaphorical cape and for three years of my life he was the ultimate superhero. I always felt safe when I was around Jeremy. He was an incredible boy and while we aren’t close right now, I’m pretty sure he’s just as equally an incredible man.