Crushes are special though usually temporary. What about your first crush? It does stay with you for a long time!

It happened to me in when I was in the 7th standard when I was struck by 'the first crush syndrome'. At the age of 13, you don’t realise that you are not as grown up as you think you are. 

He was the school's 'sports star', two years older than me. I saw him at every sports meet on Saturdays. He was the reason my Saturday attendance was never low. But as every crush does, this too faded under the pressure of studies and related stuff. Besides, the out-of-sight-out-of-mind theory does hold true.

It was not that my friends never tried the matchmaking thing for me. But my special prowess as a bookworm never faded and this resulted in my 'zero boyfriends till date' status even after my plus two. I was happy with my books, and my crush with his Greek God looks was just a fading memory for me. He was on my Facebook friends list – like everyone else from school – and that was it.

Love wasn’t a pleasant experience for me after that either – two bitter breakups turned me into a complete relationship phobic. Though no one matched the looks and style of my Greek God, I wanted my relationships to last.

'Graduated!' This was my Facebook status once I was done with college. By then there was not even an active memory of my first crush in my mind. But guess who was the first one to hit a like on my status? The guy whom I had never greeted even a casual hello to, the one who sent shivers down my spine every time he kicked the football and scored a goal. Yes! It was my very own Greek God!

A message flew into my inbox: 'Congratulations, girl! I have admired your debating skills since school times. Anyone can kick a ball, but it takes guts to speak your opinion in front of a crowd and that too so fluently. Way to go, beautiful!'

My heartbeat went super-fast at those words – it was as if I had time-travelled back to the age of 13!

I suddenly felt I was beautiful. No doubt I always was, but a girl doesn’t always start admiring herself untill someone she values makes her feel it. My inner voice spoke to me. 'See! It’s such an easy job to start a casual conversation… He is congratulating you on graduating, and you couldn’t speak even when he got a job in an MNC!'

I finally replied to his message with a smiling emoji and wrote, 'Thank you so much!' I couldn’t type a word more...

After exchanging numbers and talking to him over two long months, I realised he wasn’t the unachievable God-like creature I had always imagined him to be. He was a genuine guy who admired the way I presented my point of view and also my smile – which made me smile more often! I felt as if he was someone I would search for even in a sea of people.

Sparks flew, and I realised the universe was conspiring for us to be together.