Missed opportunities or regrets? Sort of sums up my life in a way.
I was always very shy with not much confidence or self esteem, still the same to some extent. I made lots of friends who were girls, and later in life friends who were women, but I never had the confidence to think that they were interested in me, or going out together.
So rather than risk causing any awkwardness or thinking they might be offended I was happy to think of them as just good friends. It is only now when I look back and recall moments in a conversation that I see they sometimes dropped massive hints about things that went straight over my head at the time. I dread to think what they must have thought about me.
I canāt believe how stupid I have been and it upsets me if I think about it too much. It seems as if it should be easy to begin a relationship, itās the most natural thing in the world.
But to me it feels like considering climbing Everest, it would be fantastic, but I know itās never going to happen now. Sorry if this sounds like a bit of a self indulgent wallow, but Iāve never spoken about this to anyone so itās therapeutic in a way. I hope.
Just to end on a lighter note here is a story of a missed opportunity or a close call depending on how you look at it. I became quite friendly with a girl who must have been about 4 months pregnant, sheād split with her partner long ago but had a bit of a fling with him resulting in her being pregnant and him doing a bunk.
She was lovely and really good to be with, and thatās the way I saw it.
Then one night as we were saying our farewells she mentioned that she had been to see a film, canāt remember what it was now, but in the film she said that she had watched a heavily pregnant woman being able to make love in a sitting down position, or something.
So Iām going, āoh really, mmm I seeā Not really seeing at all. Then she said, āI do like a man you knowā
Now I guess at this point any man with a brain would have got the message.
But me being me, somehow I thought she had started talking about how she preferred serving a male customer in the shoe shop where she worked.
No, I canāt believe how dim I was either. What an utter berk I am.