Maiselog

I was still in elementary school. It was near the end of the school year and a couple weeks before the school’s Jazz band had to give a concert. I played the tenor saxophone and was really good friends with these two girls (Ella and Kathy) that were also in the band. Here is how my story plays out: Two girls like the same guy; He only likes one of them, and in the end makes other really upset. I’m sure everyone has heard this kind of story. What makes the story interesting and relates it to my Internet past is the fact that all of the drama occurred through AOL’s Instant Message program. It was a fight every night to commandeer the phone line for hours at a time to talk to my classmates after school. This especially got nasty when my brother discovered the joys of instant messaging a couple years after I did. During 6th grade AOL IM was my alter ego if not my second life. I would spend multiple hours each night free from the restrictions of communicating face to face. I was really shy and had some trouble talking to girls. It was easy for me to be someone else on AOL. I had more confidence in the safety of my own home. Conversation boxes would fill the entire screen on my computer monitor. How did I keep so many concurrent conversations fails me to this day. Every night I talked to these two girls in my jazz band. Our discussions ranged from the simple, “wats up?” to in-depth discourses on the meaning of life (Yes, I seriously talked about the point of my existence in 6th grade). I eventually started to have feelings for Kathy, and one night, while chatting online, I decided to exclaim my feelings for her and ask her to be my Girlfriend. Ella got really angry, because it turned out that she had feelings for me, too. After a few intensely emotional messages from Ella, she signed off without warning. Soon after, I ripped my own modem cord out of the wall. Guilt hit me in the side of the face. I had never made anyone that upset through instant messaging.