She was the red-haired girl who lived down the street. A beautiful soul and my first and, if I am honest, only love. We graduated from high school in 1988 with plans to finish college and get married. Then in our sophomore year, I lost my fucking mind walked into a recruiter’s office, and joined the Army. I didn’t tell her, I just did it. She was mad as fuck. We didn’t talk for 9 months. Then we went off and on until I got stationed overseas. When I got back she was married and very pregnant.
They have 3 kids and 4 grandkids. From what I can tell, her life has been full of love and peace. If she had stuck with me, it would have been much, much darker. She would have been an army wife alone dealing with our kids, and then my injuries, rehab, addictions, and PTSD. I am happy she dodged that bullet.
Anyway, as the man once said, “Hi ho.”
Not at "one that got away story really " but… Middle school or early high school (I don’t understand well your USA system), one girl asked me to be her bf (maybe as a joke idk), i did 180 and said bye, just wasn’t into those things yet, only cared about watching Digimon and stuff. Typical nerd with thick glasses.
I always considered her physically unattractive but she was a sweet heart with everyone, soft spoken, her mom was a religion teacher at our school.
Anyways, next year, hormones were doing its job I guess, she looked the same ugly duckling for me, but she also… I dunno, like something was calling me towards her and I though many years later, even to this day “man, I should’ve said yes, even if it was a prank or a short thing”.
She became the girlfriend of the only “jock” (for you Americans) of the class about 3 months after my “rejection”.
Last time I saw her was at a high school reunion, and that was ten years ago. She had a couple of young kids and was married to a firefighter. I really liked the guy.
She didn’t really get away because I never went for her. She was my high school crush.
It feels nice, now, to think of her in encased in a nice situation. Their family looked healthy and happy. It’s nice, if one does get away, to see her with a good guy.
My high school boyfriend who I fell in love with when I was 12. The trouble was he was 16, and then I was 14 and he was 18, and at the time I didn’t understand what the problem was. We had a brief moment together when I was 14 and he 17, and nobody but the two of us has ever been so in love. Never felt anything like that in my life again, it was like a . But then I was too young and he got kicked out of his parents house and moved away. I caught up with him on Facebook by accident, and he was this lovely smart pleasant progressive person who loved Obama and Trudeau. I quit Facebook for a while and when I went back he was a Trump Qanon psycho despite being Canadian, albeit born in the US. It’s like seeing someone catch leprosy or something. Like they had a brain infection and came out with a totally different personality. I am way more left than Obama and Trudeau, but he at least reasonably believed in progressive politics. Suddenly he was an antimasker making shitty comments about trans people. Obviously I ended up dodging a bullet because that’s a no go for me, but I never felt such pure love in my life as I did for him and it hurt terribly to see him become this lunatic even if we weren’t together.
Or, you could have been the one to keep him sane.
The power of love is the most powerful power of all
Never really had the chance to get off the ground. But I really truly loved him. I couldn’t eat or sleep the feeling was so strong, and it was the same for him.
The far-left to far-right pipeline is wild.
It’s like they had ideological consistency in the first place.
He was not at any time far left.
I had a huge crush on my god parent’s (friends of the family, not actual family) daughter growing up. I asked her to marry me when I was, like, 8 (she was like 16 at the time iirc)? She got married years ago and I was actually wondering about how she’s doing the other day; but I don’t know how to contact her.
I saw her crossing the street (not at a crosswalk). Beautiful, confident, zero fucks given, I was immediately in love. I debated pulling over and seeing if I could go back and find her, but it happened too fast and there was no good road to turn onto. Oh well, even though she didn’t have a collar, she probably already had a home…
TLD is still a Sony Supporter and that’s all I need to say.
The one that got away is currently posting this comment.
I’ve been a serial monogamist since I started dating (way back in middle school), and my major relationships have been 1.5 years, 5.5 years, 2 years, and my current relationship which is 8+. My “ones that got away” were actually people that I wish I had messed around with in a no-strings-attached sort of way when I happened to be single. Problem is that I was never single for very long. Should’ve seen that as a personal red flag at the time, but I lacked the maturity and clarity.
Anyways, it’s not like an active desire I have. I’m really lucky - I’m married to a great guy, and I truly believe I’ve chosen an excellent life partner. Certainly the best fit for me from all the guys I’ve met. Just sometimes I wish I hadn’t taken love and sex so seriously when I was younger, and tried to have more fun.
If any young person is reading this, get it out of your system! Anybody that’s gonna judge you isn’t worth your time. Just be smart and safe about it, but you’ve got your whole adult life to be serious.
Married 20 years and also a serial monogamist and this is great advice IMO.
I don’t have a “one that got away” either and I’m madly in love with my wife but yeah… I definitely could have had more fun. Get out there.
Maybe it’s how I’m wired (I’m demi) or because I did get it out of my system, but I find the sentiment confusing. I know of several friends who’ve had way more partners and hookups than me, but they still seem to feel unsatisfied. Like they regret not doing even more.
Maybe there is a magic number that one can hit that leads to a satisfying sexual history, but from the outside it looks to me like a type of dysphoria - that is, of the people I’m thinking of, I don’t believe they’ll ever feel complete.
I got her back about a year or two later. She’s currently about 1m to my right, and now that 15 years have passed we share a house with four kids and two cats.
… So she didn’t get away?
Kind of. For a while she did. I moved abroad, and we both concluded that chapter to be over. A couple of years down the road I was visiting the old country (passportrenewal, iirc), and I happened to run into her the day before I was supposed to fly home. But then this volcano erupted, grounding all flights in Northern Europe for a while, and during this extra time we ended up picking up the thread where we left it.
There’s more than one. I saw one of them lately, she’s doing good. We talked and hugged. That felt good, a little closure.
Mostly I don’t know since I am so bad with people and they stay the fuck away from me which, good for them.
There’s some I really grieve for. The things I couldn’t do. The things I was too bad at.
I hope all of them are better than I am.
They all got away. I don’t know how any of them turned out; because I disappeared and became lost.
Hah, relatable
there was this one girl I knew that we both kinda bonded over being outcasts, among other things. I didn’t do anything cause I had untreated clinical anxiety and adhd, but that’s unrelated. Anyway she stopped going to my school and there was also a girl in my neighborhood who got kidnapped, and I don’t think those events involved the same girl, but rumor around the school was that it was, while I thought it was someone else. At this point, I don’t even know if there’s a way to answer that question
What? The second half of this makes no sense.
It’s like he was having a stroke while typing that up.
No idea and I want to keep it that way.
She was a he when I wanted him. Came out as transgender a few years after.
Cool gal, tho.
