August 29, 2000 – My Talk with Rob about Will

August 29, 2000 – My Talk with Rob about Will

Rob’s Journal cites this as our “talk about guys.” Well, that’s not quite the case. I had spent all summer with a guy named Will. Will isn’t a member of the church, but he’s cute and a raver and he was different than any other guy I was around. So we had a way fun non-romantic summer together. Not that I wouldn’t have minded it being romantic. I missed JH, Will was cute and fun, and we were spending all kinds of time together. I knew there was no long-term relationship with Will, but that’s not what that summer was about. But nothing happened between us anyway, so it doesn’t matter.

What did happen between Will and me, though, was that I became his counselor. I asked him questions about his life and analyzed things for him that he never really tried to understand, so I ended up walking through his life with him and he came to some answers he’d been looking for. He wasn’t happy and wanted to be. He knew HOW to be happy, but wasn’t making the steps to get there. By the end of the summer we were good friends, but I was a little worried about Will. He was lost and looking for direction, and I wanted to help.

So I called Rob. Seemed to me that Rob would be good at advice (and I wanted to be with him, so it was a good excuse). It surprised me, however, when I called and asked him how he was on advice. His reply was something like, “Am I good at advice? All I DO is give advice.” And while it’s true that one of Rob’s main roles in life is to give advice to his friends and family, it caught me off-guard a little. No matter, we were going to talk and go on a walk and that all sounded great to me.

So we talked about Will and what I should do to help him. I don’t remember what he told me. I do remember three things. One, we met Janine on our walk, a girl from my hometown. I remember saying hi and introducing Rob a little, though I wasn’t sure how to introduce someone I just met. He wasn’t my boyfriend or anything. Later she would tell me that she thought I didn’t like him from the vibe she was getting that night. The second thing I remember is that Rob had just got his spacers in for his braces (he was getting braces at 21?) to get rid of the gap between his two top front teeth. I hadn’t noticed the gap. He also told me he was balding and to prove the point he ripped hair out of the top of his head and in some insane/funny sounding voice said, “Is that normal?!” Again I was impressed with how he could laugh at himself. The third thing I remember taking away from that night is that I was more impressed with Rob the more time I was with him and I wanted to be with him more and more.

I gave Rob a hug that night. I remember thinking it wasn’t as warm a hug as it had been the Saturday before.

That Friday I wrote Rob a note to tell him thank you for the talk we had. It probably was written more as an excuse to see him again so I could deliver the note than anything else. I couldn’t keep my mind off of Rob.

written Spring 2006