There is sadness in my heart when I think of the good times in my life that have passed. Like the times spent at the dinner table with all of family members present when I was boy. I remembered how we would laugh so hard as my father would tell us funny stories. I can still remember the first time when I learned how to drive. I remember the excitement of just running an errand for my mother so that I could have more time behind the wheel.

My memories still can drift back to the first real crush that I had on this girl when I was in high school. She was the girlfriend of one of the more popular boys at our school. It was on a warm June Saturday night that there was a house party. It was one of those parties back in the 70's that took place in a jam packed living room that was full of high school teenagers, bumping and grinding to the latest dance tunes. Of course what would a party be without the imfamous 'black fluorescent light' that was used to provide semi-darkness and mystique to the ambience of the room.

Everyone was slow dancing to Marvin Gaye's tune 'Let's get in on' and there I was sitting alone on the couch watching and eating chips and onion dip staring at this beautiful girl across the room. Let's just call her Helen. There she was, the prettiest girl I've ever seen, sitting there alone across the room from me. The dark room only made her beauty all the more appealing to look at. Her strawberry blonde hair ran down past her shoulders. Her blue eyes and perfect nose were a work of art. She was just sitting there and no one had asked her to dance.

I could feel my heart beginning to pound like a sledgehammer as I muster enough courage to ask this vision of loveliness for a dance. I could feel my hands becoming sweaty as my tongue became heavy as I stood up from the couch. I kept searching over and over in my mind for what charming words would I use to say to her. I dipped another chip in the onion dip and munched it down quickly hoping it would give me greater clarity but it didn't. I sat back down quickly on the couch to regroup myself one more time. After what felt like an eternity I stirred up enough courage to take what I believed to be my one and only shot.

As I stood to my feet I saw her boyfriend walk right up to her. I could tell by her expression that she knew him. He took her into his arms and led her out on the dance floor. That night they played about three or four of the best romantic slow songs before they got the place jumping again. I resumed my position back on the couch as I watched Helen and her boyfriend dance all night together.

In my opinion her boyfriend was the luckiest guy in the world! I know one thing, if Helen were my girl I would love her with every bit of my being. The crazy thing about this short story is that she will never know that. Time continues to move forward taking all of my joys, pains, sorrows and disappointments of my past carefully wrapping them up into delicate memories. This essay is too short to list all that is dear to me but I can say that is important that we savor those moments. Good, bad or indifferent take time to absorb the moments of your life. Why? For one reason you can never return to those places again. Memories are gifts that are snapshots of time. They will teach us the lessons we have learn. They will show us how blessed we are by revealing how much we have grown up or if we need to improve as well. My memories will always be my memories and no one or nothing can take them away from me. They are mine and I wouldn't trade them for the world! Every once in a blue moon it's nice to get those butterflies in my stomach when I think about Helen!

Article by Sgt. Roy Lewis