Life’s obscure short stories
Comments (0) I tend to remember strange and interesting little things about people and situations in my life. Things that probably have little to no significance to anyone else. They’re just bits of history that pop up now and then to remind me that I’ve known such variety of occurrences and acquaintances.
I haven’t seen David Smith since high school, but I went to school with him from the time I moved to Maryland in 4th grade until we graduated from Frederick High. We were never close friends or anything, but he was in a bunch of my classes over the years, and he was always someone I thought of as a good guy. My clearest memory of him is from one of those awful Middle School dances that pretty much everyone went to in order to stand around and feel monumentally awkward for a few hours, even if a dance wasn’t really your thing (it definitely wasn’t mine).
David was the first person to ask me to dance. Ever. I declined because I was a wimp and I didn’t even know how to dance anyway. Though from what I’ve been reading, maybe he could have taught me a thing or two if I’d accepted the offer. In any case, he just brushed it off and went to ask someone else. I think it was just a matter of having fun for him, so it probably seems insignificant. But middle school is a time when a lot of kids could be and often were quite cruel about anything and everything. This particular dance was fairly soon after I was accosted in the girls’ bathroom and asked ‘God, what’s wrong with your face?!’ in ultimate disgust (by someone else I also remember quite clearly, and for that statement alone), referring to my erupting teenage complexion.
A statement like that wouldn’t bother me much now, but naturally it really got to me then. So being asked to dance when I thought I was the epitome of an ugly middle school mess was amazing. I think he probably boosted my self esteem by 110% without even realising it. And that pretty much defines what I remember about David. He was a nice kid. Nice to everyone, and genuinely so. There are plenty of other snippets from elementary school and high school that I remember, but that’s the one the pops into my head unprompted every now and then and makes me smile.
I didn’t even know David was in the Marines until yesterday when I heard about his injuries. Shows how good I am at keeping up with things. But according to the outpouring of love and memories on Facebook, he loved being a Marine. And while I really don’t agree with the war, I will always back the soldiers who fight it, because they have more bravery in an eyelash than I do in my entire body. So I’m glad to hear he was doing what he loved, because that makes all the difference in life. And because he was such a happy person, I’m pretty sure that everyone who remembers him does so in a positive light.
Obscure old memories and stories show you how a person really is, so it’s too bad that they don’t often come to the surface until they’re tributes. I may not have seen the guy in years, but reading everyones’s memories on his Facebook wall paints a great picture of a full, happy life.
People live on through stories. So keep telling them.
