“The World’s No Mind Reader”(Kingston’s Short Story #4 [Age 12])

The World's No Mind Reader Kingston S. Lim

About Kingston’s Short Stories: In this series, I’ll be sharing one story from every year of my life. The stories may at times seem mundane, but its these day to day occurrences that define us. A lesson is then pulled from each story.

I remember when I was 12, in my English class, the girl that sat to my left would always drop her pen and the desks were designed in a way so that the arm rest would me it difficult to reach down to pick something up.

So the natural thing to do was to help her out.

She would whisper, “thank you’ and we would continue listening to the teacher babble. This would happen almost every lesson and I started to wonder why this girl (let’s call her Joy) was so clumsy. Then I started overhearing the boys tease her,

“🎵 Joy likes Kingston 🎵.”

Fast forward to my 7th grade Life Science class. Joy sat near one of my buddies, Mike. And Mike would later come ask me out of the blue if I liked Joy. I was taken aback and off guard by the question. I panicked and said “no.”

In actuallity I wouldn’t have minded going out with her. Of course now that I made my opinion known I felt I had to stick with it.

By that same token in that same English class, the boy sitting behind me was a naught one that caused trouble. Funny thing is, the teacher got our names mixed up, so it would be me that took the blame for bad behavior. And this still I didn’t speak up.

I was the invisible wallflower.

Recounting the missed opportunity at age 12.
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(Lesson Learned)

The world is no mind reader. If you don’t speak your mind, no one will know what you want. And who knows, if you say what you gotta say, maybe what they want is the same as what you desire:

Your working towards the same goal and you can form an alliance for mutual benefit
You have a lot in common so you become friends.
Or you’re crushing on a girl and she is on you too, so you have a relationship

I would say not letting my feelings known about “Joy” is one of my biggest childhood regrets.

One thing is certain. You gotta draw your line in the sand.

And once others know where you stand,

That’s when you can draw up connections, that is that’s when you begin building relationships with other people.