Sunday, December 01, 2024

Preface To A Steady Show: Perspective


Google Images tells me that image above is from Pep Comics # 174, from 1964. (You can read it here.) I found the image probably somewhere on Tumblr many moons ago. It's been a while since I've read an Archie comic. But I read lots when I was a kid.

The word "steady" shows up in lots of songs in the phrase "going steady," which the internet tells me is "when two romantic partners agree to an exclusive relationship." So, "dating." Although maybe dating isn't necessarily exclusive.

For me, I never "went steady." I briefly had a girlfriend at the end of high school, & then met someone over two years later whom I courted for a long time & then suddenly we lived together. Maybe "going steady" only works if you're a teenager living at home & going to school.

Looking back, I feel like I wasted lots of time - & put myself in many embarrassing & humiliating situations - trying to start relationships with girls. I had no one giving me advice or information & none of those embarrassing or humiliating experiences ever really helped. It happened when it happened. I needed to be a certain kind of person for it to happen. Not that I would've believed it if someone gave me that advice - but looking back I could've had more fun if I'd known that.

Since I am a pretty regretful person I think a lot about the mistakes I've made in my life. If I could do it all over again - & I am dumb enough to waste time thinking about such things - I almost certainly would forego all the pining & swooning I did in high school & focus on things I should've been focused on - which is, making a life. Life happened to me, I had very little hand in how it turned out. I would focus on being more of an author of my own life.

But I'll never get the chance to do it over so I just look back & sigh. Oh the stories I could tell about my stupidities. They were the steady thing in my life then!

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