Garoo

— Are you a fireman or something? Because, you know, the way you walk, well, you just get noticed.

— What? A fireman? The way I walk? Uh, you… you mean that in a good way, right?

— Well, yes, of course.

O–kay. Welcome to the twilight zone. You know, I’m really beginning to feel like I spend the summer in some kind of bizarro universe where I’m a hunk, I walk like a fireman or something or whatever that means, and I can get boys I like to like me (well, that one guy in the dialogue I didn’t really fancy, but still he was young and rather good-looking), and I’m afraid that by summer’s end it will all be over and I’ll be back to my nerdy, unattractive self again. Well, it’s either that, or I just wasted the first 27 years of my life believing I was a useless spaz, when in fact all I needed was the right clothes and the right haircut and a couple months rowing and… self confidence. Yeah, that. I guess that’s what I really missed.

So this is the latest twist in the garoo’s life: I look like a fireman. A Paris fireman, mind you—you have to know that Paris firemen are famous for being particularly handsome, it’s an acknowledged fact. Now, I’m aware that the thing was basically a pick-up line, so it should be taken with caution. But it was a sincere pick-up line. Uh, wait, that doesn’t mean anything. I mean, it was said with a straight face, it wasn’t mockery, it wasn’t meant to be ridiculous, the guy just kind of meant it.

All in all, it’s positively amazing how your perception of yourself can be at the opposite of the way people see you. I’ll have to get used to the idea that I’m not that ten-year-old loser with improbable clothes and an improbable haircut that nobody saw (well, I thought I was invisible; further experience suggested that it may not have been exactly true, although I’ll never know for sure). And I’m not that 20-yo pimple-faced slightly overweight doofus either. I may actually be a young adult now, and if I weren’t home in gnawed pajamas I might have added attractive to that. What a change. In just a couple of months.

So it’s all really getting in place to accomplish the grand scheme of things, is it? Yeah, I know what I mean.