*Names have been changed to protect the innocent
So, once upon a time there was this girl, we'll just call her Megan. Megan was in high school and Megan was in love with a boy named Rocky. Rocky had blue eyes and a great smile and little to no awareness of Megan's existence.
Let's just say that Megan listened to Bonnie Raitt's song "I Can't Make You Love Me" a few too many times.
Anyway. . . Megan was an assistant manager or stat-keeper for the softball team. Then, one fateful day her friend Heidi came and made a life changing offer: To join her as a stat-keeper for the BASEBALL TEAM!
I imagine that the all caps make it clear that Rocky was on the baseball team.
Megan was caught up in dreams of long bus rides and a thankful Rocky in tight baseball pants showing appreciation for cold water and well recorded hitting numbers. This was going to be amazing. All that stood before her and bliss was the softball team.
So, Megan, who in every other way was an upright citizen and all around honest human being, found herself telling Ms. M, the softball coach, that her parents didn't want her to keep stats anymore because she was getting behind in her school work. Ms. M was supportive and understanding.
The plan was all coming together.
Megan just forgot one itsy bitsy tiny detail:
The baseball and softball team rode the bus together to away games.
Megan enjoyed a full five minutes of happiness seated behind Rocky. Then, Ms. M boarded the bus, spotted Megan, and put it all together.
Because, contrary to the common opinion of high school students. . . high school teachers are not actually idiots.
Reading Harry Potter as an adult is delightful. It is also full of moments like this:
WHY DON'T YOU JUST TELL THEM THE TRUTH????
As a kid, it makes total sense to not tell grownups the truth, to try to solve everything on your own. It's perfectly logical to not actually ask the girl you like to the dance.
But, once your frontal lobe is fully developed you can't help but wonder why there wasn't some sort of an alert button for Harry Potter to immediately summon Dumbledore when needed and tell him everything. It would simplify everything and cut 100 pages out of the book immediately.
But, life isn't about getting to the end of the story as quickly as possible. And neither is Harry Potter. Sometimes we tell lies so we can get closer to a boy that doesn't actually know we exist. Sometimes we are afraid to ask for help because we are certain we are supposed to do it alone. Sometimes we simply do stupid things.
And sometimes, there isn't a better way to learn than to do just that.
Life is a lab of learning and learning is sometimes incredibly messy and painfully inefficient. The point is not to get from A to B as quickly as possible, the point is who we become along the way.
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