Friday, September 10, 2010

Second Chance

I’ve known Will since I was 18 and first moved to Lawrence. We had many mutual friends and hung out at parties. We kept in contact on and off through the years.

When I first moved back to KS after living in FL, I had a Happy Hour in Lawrence and Will attended. He confessed that he liked me all these years. Our first date was the day after my birthday. He brought me daisies (my favorite flower) and Boulevard Wheat (my favorite beer). He took me to Teller’s for dinner. We quickly became “official” boyfriend and girlfriend.

Our relationship progressed and we even talked about moving in together. We had only been dating a short time but had almost 10 years of history so we knew each other very well. During that time I lived with my parents while my sister, Ryann, and I looked for an apartment in KC. I always went to Lawrence to see Will.

Ryann and I moved to our new apartment and that’s when things started to go downhill. He always wanted me to make the drive to Lawrence and rarely made the drive to KC. I felt that he didn’t make me a priority. I asked him to talk about what was wrong and he wouldn’t discuss it with me so eventually I broke things off.

Fast forward two years later. Will was one of my matches on match.com. I decided to email him to say hi. I had heard from Will several times over the past two years but rarely responded to his texts. I’m not quite sure why I decided to contact him. On paper he met all my criteria.

I heard back from him and we made a plan to meet for a beer at Louise’s downtown, one of my favorite Lawrence bars. After catching up and talking awhile he said he wanted to get back together. He said he realized what a big mistake he made in the past. I wasn’t really sure how to react to this. I hadn’t thought of getting back together. I told him we could try dating and see how things went.

He text me the next day and said what a great time he had. After that I didn’t hear from him for several days. I thought if he really wanted to get back together he would be trying a little harder. He called about a week later and said he was going to be in KC and would love to take me to dinner. I was looking forward to it. The next day I get a text that he wouldn’t be able to make it. I didn’t even respond to his text. I was upset and hurt. This showed me that he wasn’t ready to make any changes and it would be the same thing as before.

My sister tells me that people don’t change. I understand what she is saying and to some extend I agree but I also think people can learn and grow from past mistakes and experiences. I would rather give things another try then wonder how things may have been. Now I know.