Thirteen

I Wondered What It Would Be Like to Be Adored By Someone

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When I was 13 every girl on the planet had a boyfriend or at least that was how it seemed to me. The women I saw in the movies and on TV all seemed to be about 18 and were gorgeous and thin and seemed to have their pick of guys. I wondered what it would be like to be adored by someone.

My friends and I loved to go to the local roller skating rink. Hit songs from the radio would be thumping from overhead speakers while colored lights flashed in patterns on the rink and the skaters inside of it. I’d see couples skating hand in hand and would wish that could be me. It was 1981 and I remember hearing a lot of Foreigner and Joan Jett and a song called ‘Into The Night’: a one-hit wonder that was the perfect catch-your-breath slow dance song. It featured a 33 year old singer named Benny Mardones telling us about his love of a girl “just sixteen years old.” The chorus was my favorite part:

If I could fly, I’d pick you up

I’d take you into the night

And show you a love

Like you’ve never seen, ever seen.

I considered singers like him to be very wise. They understood that the most romantic type of love stories always had people keeping the boy and girl apart. Romeo and Juliet were like that…