What Happened to Crushes?

You know I was thinking the other day that I haven’t had a crush in quite awhile. I’ve spouted out about what my thoughts about unpleasantness of the word itself, but “Crush’ is the most commonly used word to describe the infatuation you have for someone so we'll use it.

Most of my first crushes weren’t with real life people. They were from the movies or tv. You couldn’t like the girl next door who was your age. Cooties, you know. Like most guys my age, Princess Leia was one of my first. She was the only girl in those really cool movies. She was feisty, a princess, could fly spaceships and was very cute. What was not to love? In my adolescent mind I thought, “yeah, she would be the perfect girl”. I wasn’t aware about 50 million other kids were thinking the same thing. That's quite some competition to try to stand out to one girl. You have less rivlary at a bar. Leia deserved the adulation. To this day a generation still considers the gold bikini to be the sexist outfit ever.

To have a crush you have to see the person on a consistent basis, that’s what makes a crush. You can’t just see them once or twice. You have to encounter them consistently, then over time you think about them more and can’t wait to see them. Afterwards you would analyze what they said or what they were wearing. Then start planning on how to handle your next encounter with them.

Before hitting my crush stride with actual classmates, I pined for Daisy Duke, Catwoman, Wonder Woman, Joanie from Happy Days. Plus a few actresses I caught on the naughty cable channels, late at night and uh without my parents knowledge.
In school having a crush was great. It definitely kept me motivated. And I was excited about getting to that class, something that teachers only prayed for, unfortunately it wasn’t to learn. My attention would be solely on my object of affection. Who they talked to, did they pass notes, did they answer any of the teachers questions, oh my God I think they looked at me!

Cool stuff. But at some point, not sure when, crushes became less and less commonplace. It’s almost as if reality set in and the whole ideal version of happily ever that you envisioned with your crush has become more of a fairty tale. Time has passed and you’ve gone through pains of real relationships, gotten into fights, had to deal with over the top drama. The whole fantasy has been corrupted by our experiences. Now you’re conscious of the problems you would have to deal with; him/her having a crazy ex., being too much or a partier, lives too far away, not being very bright, or having nothing in common with each other.

Back then I didn’t worry about any of that. I’ve had a handful of crushes since the old school days, but none have come close to the perfection of Me and Princess Leia killing Stormtroopers together, her kissing me on the cheek and us flying off in a spaceship before the film fades out. I never thought twice about how far away she lived, age difference or that she was a fictional character. It was perfect. I don't think any future crush that I might have will ever be able to top it.

Well back to reality…..