Yes, I’m still a Twirp.

A few weeks ago I was reorganizing our collection of family photos and memorabilia and I came across a scrapbook I kept when I was in high school.  Among the photos of my high school buds I found my old learners permit and a “Twirp License.” Have you ever heard of a Twirp License? 

Every year we had a week long school event called Sadie Hawkins week and at the end of the week we had the Sadie Hawkins dance. In order to go to this dance, the guys had to be invited by a girl and the girl had to buy a Twirp license if they wanted to do the inviting.  (Now I’m wishing I hadn’t packed away the photograph of me with my date. Talk about looking like a Twirp.)

The dance was a lot of fun and I was able to get close to the boy I may have never had the chance to know well had I not acted like “a Twirp”.  (Unfortunately he met his demise a year or so later but that’s another story altogether.) The lesson it taught me was that sometimes you have to risk getting embarrassed to get something you want.

I took that same type of risk some years later when I first laid eyes on my husband. He walked in to the bar where I was having drinks with my girlfriends, I took one look in his eyes and knew I wanted him in my life. I immediately wondered how I was going to meet him and still not look too forward or trashy. As he stood talking with some friends, I walked past him and as I did, I reached over and lightly touched his hand with my fingertips and said Hi….That’s all, just Hi and kept walking.  Lucky for him he followed me (LOL), and the rest is a 25 year history.

Have you ever wondered what would have happened had you taken the risk you were too afraid to take? Or did you take the risk and reap the benefits? Tell me about it.