I saw this on Pinterest and I became immediately inspired. Inspired to do what you might ask? Inspired to do something scary. Something ridiculously scary. So I started thinking to myself, what is the scariest thing that I can imagine doing? And then it hit me. Like a ton of bricks. It just slapped me in the face so hard core that it hurt for like 24 hours straight. And I'm not talking like, oh this hurts a little, an ibuprofen will help! I'm talking insane excruciating pain that is incessant and doesn't go away. Even with three doses of cough syrup.
The task ahead of me was this: to hold a boys hand. Just grab onto it and not let go for at least 6 seconds. Now keep in mind that is not easily done. I had a lot ahead of me. First of all, I had to find a somewhat willing candidate. I mean, you can't just go out and grab a random guys hand, you have to find one who is showing a bit of interest. That was my first problem. Somehow finding a "willing" candidate was much more difficult than I had expected, so I had to go to plan b. Grabbing a random strangers hand.
Is it just me or did this get a lot more scary? Grabbing a random guys hand and holding on to it for 6 seconds? Did I suddenly just become a little suicidal? I think yes. Why did I do this to myself? Oh frailty thy name is woman! (for those of you who aren't very literate, I just quoted Shakespeare...you know, the really cool poet).
So here was my new and improved plan: my roommate and I were going to go ice skating, and there I would find my target. I was going to find the most attractive man who wasn't there with a date, and just pounce. Yeah that's right, I was going to be all sorts of brave. This was happening. For real. Straight up.
We entered the skating rink and let me tell you, there was a plethora of ridiculously good looking men. The only problem was that they all had dates already...awko taco. But I couldn't let that stop me. I was doing something scary. So I scoped out the men and found one that looked the least intimidating. His name was John. He was about 5' 8". Super tan. Wearing a black striped shirt. With a gold chain necklace. Oh yeah. This was definitely the one.
After skating around for a while trying to get my courage up, I decided it was time. This was it. Here I go. I skated up to him. I looked at him. Linked my arm with his. And we spun. We spun around hardcore. It was a little weird. Like, he almost fell over and I was like, why in the world are we spinning around? Turns out I was going a little fast when I grabbed his arm so my momentum sent us into a lil bit of a spin. Good times.
We talked for a while after I let go of him. I tried to hurry and skate away to avoid awkward conversation, but lets' be real. I'm not very good at ice skating. I'm like toddler status. So in my attempt to hurry and skate away, I ended up going at a snail pace. Needless to say, he caught up to me in a real hurry and just started asking questions. Our convo went a little something like this:
"What's your name?"
"Anna"
"Cool. Where do you go to school? BYU?"
"Nah, UVU."
"Oh. Are you Mormon?"
"Uh..heck yeah!"
"Nice."
"Well, bye!"
And then I took shelter behind my roommate and her friends. Mission accomplished. My life was basically complete. I held a completely random strangers hand (well technically we linked arms but lets just let bygones be bygones). Dang! Look at me go, being all brave and junk. I was proud of myself. Totes proud. I followed Eleanor Roosevelt's advice. I did something that scared me. Did it pay off? I'll leave that for you to decide.
When we were leaving, I took my skates off and put my regular shoes back on. And then I was just innocently sitting there, looking at my phone. (This is where it gets good). So I was sitting there all peaceful like, when I heard a voice behind me. The voice asked if they could steal my phone so naturally I said "of course!" and put my phone in the hand that appeared in front of my face. I didn't even look up.
Then I realized something. I just handed my phone to some random person. What have I done? Oh my lanta! So finally I looked up....should've done that first. Don't know why I didn't. And guess who it was? It was the guy whose hand I held! Gah! He was putting his number in my phone. Was this really happening?
Wow! Look at me go, getting a number! But then it got awkward. His thumbs were a little too big for my phone, so it took him like 3 minutes to put his name and number in there. So for those 3 minutes we were just awkwardly there together, not really saying anything to each other, not really acknowledging each others presence. Then he handed me back my phone and told me to text him sometime, and away he went. Most likely to never be seen again. But that is how I figured out what his name was. John Keyes. Well, thank you John Keyes, for helping me be brave. Maybe someday I'll see you again. But until then, I bid you adieu!
