Eng 1a: Meeting You

Sierra Ramirez

Professor Ronillo Lacson

ENG 1A

13 September 2015

Meeting You

Simon was more than an average guy to me; he was and still is my best friend, my motivation, my biggest supporter and my first love. Every day we are faced with different experiences that help shape us into the person we are or want to be. I strongly, believe that all the people or events that a person interacts with every day leave a trace in one’s mind and influence some aspect of his or her personality. I’d like to say that I believe the best things do happen unexpectedly. My unexpected experience happened when I met the person who was capable of changing my life completely. Unconditional love is what I embraced from him, the ultimate respect for myself is what developed in me, and learning to forgive is what he taught me. And the night I met him is when it all started…

Its graduation night, as I finished up eating dinner with my family, all I could think about is how badly I’m going to dread the next 5 hours. The party bus is going to be filled with 50+ people and I didn’t want to spend that night with any of them. They all had dates and the person I wanted to be with, was held up hosting a graduation party at his house filled with half of the graduating class. Sure my best friends will be there, but they weren’t going to be worried about me? All that mattered was spending their last night of high school with their boyfriends. My best friend Lizzy picks me up so we could meet everyone at the bus, knowing I didn't want to go, she tries to help me see the brighter side of it. All of my friends would be on that bus, but here I am, the infamous Debbie downer. We finally arrive to the meeting spot, which is right outside of my high school. As I'm getting out of the car, I see a bunch of my friends gathered around in a circle. I walked over to see what they were doing and of course it is no surprise, they were chugging a huge bottle of Captain Morgan. Drinking is only something I enjoy doing on special occasions. Tonight is definitely a special occasion, the alcohol is my remedy. As the minutes pass by, everyone is beginning to get on the bus. I’m seated inside, with Lizzy right by me. As I’m looking at everyone loading up the bus, I see a familiar face. Who was he? The guy I had always seen around school but never really talked to, Simon. He was that guy, that guy around school that everyone knows. The guy I didn’t necessarily care to know because of the stories. Why is he here?

The alcohol finally starts to hit me and having the friends that I do, they snuck more on the bus. The bus is finally loaded and we're on our way to the Santa Monica Pier. The music begins to play, everyone starts dancing. I’m sitting in the front of the bus, next to the few people that aren’t dancing. The music starts to crawl under my skin… I want to dance. Lizzy is dancing right next to me; she wants me to have a good time, I want to have a good time. Suddenly, everyone is telling me to go to the back of the bus and I don’t understand why. Then I realize they want me to dance with him. The guy I didn’t know, the one you hear all the stories about. I’ve never spoken to him in my life; I refused and refused and refused continuously. By the time I realized it, I’m walking to the back of the bus, approaching him. He wasted no time, not even a second to introduce ourselves. Then it begins…

As soon as we started to dance, we connected immediately. I felt so confident dancing with him, it all felt so good and right. Normally I’m shy when it comes to dancing, but he made me feel so good about myself when I did. That's one of the things that made me fall for him. Simon made me feel so confident in myself; at that time, confidence was something that I had lost long before him. It was so much fun dancing with him on that bus. As we arrived at Santa Monica, I didn't know what to expect, or what actions he would take. Getting off the bus, the ice cold breeze caught everyone by surprise. As I got off, I was already beginning to dread the rest of the night due to the thought of not having anyone to have to myself. Then suddenly I felt someone's hand come into mine and it was him, Simon, he was there by my side to spend the remainder of the night with me. I'm not lying when I say that as soon as I felt his hand join mine, I felt so safe. I felt the comfort in him.

We walked onto the beach and he put his jacket down so that I wouldn't ruin my 30 dollar dress, but I wanted him to put it on so badly so he wouldn’t be cold. Our first kiss together was on that beach, it was so magical. I felt a huge rush of energy, attraction and emotions going through me. It might seem strange to hear someone talk about someone they had just met in this way, but something about Simon made him so special. He was so slick with his words that night; he had me wrapped around his finger from the second we met. Of course, we both had some substances in our system which helped a little, but we could’ve connected like that being completely sober. I didn't think he would be the person that I spent my graduation night with. A solid 5 hours of us that led to us being inseparable ever since. Till this day I still don't know what it was that had me drawn to him so quickly, I’ll say it was his words. He spoke so gracefully, so sweetly, so beautifully, and so wisely. Who doesn’t love a man that sounds so wise when he speaks and is so good with his words?