Tom on his first day of school meets this girl May and spoke briefly to her as how a passing acquaintance would. May is polite and petite and at first impression, seems like someone he can talk to. Tom immediately takes a liking to her, not as a boy-girl attraction, but her as an individual. Unfortunately, the conversation was short lived.
Tom has never got a chance to talk to her. Maybe Tom did have a chance at many occasions but none of which seems natural to him to strike a conversation; when they walked passed each other, or when she just stood in front of him in a queue. As time went by, it seemed as though Tom and May’s first meeting had never existed. It is as if Tom is wondering whether May recognizes him since they had never formally introduced and hat it would be rather awkward to actually say hello or acknowledge the presence of one another.
Thus a year passed by quickly and Tom hears nothing from May, nor May of Tom. However, Tom hears about May from friends who know her. As a matter of fact, Tom only knew that her name was May because his friends talked about her.
This scenario gets a little bit complicated. You see, this situation is like that of which a celebrity faces. We hear a lot of celebrities from external sources such as the news, paparazzi and the magazines and have easily information on certain aspects of their personal life; where they have been recently and their likes/ dislikes. What happens than when we actually meet that celebrity face to face? I recall reading an account of a celebrity who mentioned of how some of their fans approach them like they think that the celebrity is a close friend of theirs just because they know something personal about the celebrity’s life. But truth is that there is no relationship at all and there is no way to fix or advance a relationship that does not exist.
Now extrapolate this into the situation Tom is facing. Tom knows that this girl’s name is May and a little about her but not sure whether May knows who he is. So what does Tom say to her the next time he sees her?
“Hi May, my name is Tom” – Sounds like a stalker
“Hello, my name is Tom. You are?” – Sounds like a stalker who is pretending not to be one
Even a simple exchange of a smile or eye contact is difficult because there is no way Tom can know how such a friendly gesture may be interpreted as.
You must be laughing at Tom. “Hahaha. Simple problem, make it sound so complicated!” Maybe it is, or maybe because that Tom is innately shy.
So today Tom was in class today reading during break time and May was sitting behind him and she tells a joke to a friend beside her:
May: “My mother told me a joke last night about a Qi Er (Penguin)”
Friend: “What is it?”
May: “Well my mother was trying to explain to me why the front of a penguin is
Friend: Why is that?
May: You must imagine the movement of the penguin for it to be funny. Because when the penguin baths it can only reach the small portion in front of it and not behind
Tom is not trying to evedrop but the thing of trying not to overhear a conversation is the same as trying not to think of the pink elephant- You can never succeed! If you do not believe try it. For the next 10 seconds do not think of the pink elephant and if you succeed tell me how. But anyway, Tom upon hearing the joke bursts out laughing (He has a thing for penguins) and tries to hide it. He wishes to return another penguin joke but it would seem rude to him if he reveals that he heard the entire conversation. Thus the best response to him is no response.
Anyway, it so happens that a female friend of Tom approached Tom yesterday and she asked Tom for a favour to help introduce a crush she has to her. So today, Tom went to that guy the girl likes and got his hand phone number and MSN contact for her. Suddenly, Tom’s dilemma suddenly felt entirely stupid and trivial and Tom thinks to himself, “What the hell? If a girl can go to such extremes to create a chance for herself, why can’t he do what he wants to do?”
So Tom goes home today, gets May’s contact through a friend and shares the penguin joke with her.
The End
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