This is a personal story and not very dramatic story about a girl - if it's not your thing feel free to stop reading. The theme of the story is rejection and what comes after.

I grew up around this girl as a kid - we're both Chinese-American and the community wasn't that large. We were both nerdy and bespectacled and I didn't pay her any special interest. But by HS she was blossoming into the beautiful woman she would eventually become. It was stunning really - I've been all over the world since then and I'd put her up against anyone.

From soph to senior year I pressed my doomed campaign to win her heart and learned some hard lessons. She was a unique spirit: flighty but earnest, ditzy but always a step ahead, and totally unpredictable from one day to the next. I remember once she starting drawing hearts all over my notebook and I almost had an aneurysm, and then she calmly went back and drew an X over each one - somehow she would do this type of shit in a way that wasn't mean. Senior year I asked her to prom and she shot me down. That was basically my first heartbreak.

I was really wounded and in addition to avoiding her for a while I even avoided her friends. But we ended up going to the same college, and one day freshman year I saw her at the dining hall eating with a loud group of like 20 people I didn't know. I waved meekly and went on to find my own seat, but to my surprise she got up from the table and said she would have lunch with me. It was such a great feeling that I'll never forget - I still remember everyone at the table sneaking glances like "who is this guy who gets the special treatment". So many people would just have avoided me in that situation, but it was like she decided on the spot she was just going to do this thing for me and make my day, potential awkwardness be damned.

The last time I saw her was our 10 yr hs reunion. By then I was finally at a stage of maturity where we could laugh about what happened. It felt great talking to her without any anxiety - she still looked incredible and was her usual self. She seemed genuinely happy to see me went around introducing me as the "guy who always made fun of her as a kid".

Anyway she is married now to a tall, handsome fellow and has beautiful children. It was never meant to be with us, but that's life. We're all looking for a success story in our love life, but sometimes failure isn't so bad with the right person.