Microstory 276: Perspective Fifty-One

This is an experimental Perspectives microstory. The introduction can be found in Microstory 225. More to follow.

I’ve been waiting for a call. I’ve never done that before. A couple of years ago, I tried using online dating, and it did not work out. I sent messages to dozens of girls, thinking that at least one of them would respond, because...statistics. But none of them did. I imagine that the most they did was take one look at my profile photo and then click away. My words probably never even reached their eyes. Now I’m no poet, but I also didn’t just send a stock message every time. I put a lot of thought into them. I was assertive but not aggressive, clear but open-minded. I told them I was interested in starting a conversation. I figured that was the safest route. It’s not presumptuous, but not too timid. At least, that’s what I thought. I have no clue if any of them actually read it. I guess I just assumed they didn’t. And it’s not like I was just contacting the prettiest girls on the site. I understand what league I’m in, and I stuck with that. After my initial subscription was over, I had to drop the service. It wasn’t doing me any good, because I was no good. So instead of spending money on that, I spent money on classes. What I’ve learned is that there is a class for pretty much everything. I started with a self-help seminar for how to have more confidence. I moved on to one that taught me how to figure where my true strengths lie. I took a class for grooming and making myself as presentable as possible. I walked into a class run by a pickup artist, but felt it to be unseemly, so I walked right back out after ten minutes. More recently, I’ve been learning communication skills at the community college. It’s geared towards people who are in or are interested in breaking into business, but I find it rather useful for my needs. I’ve discovered that talking to others, in any setting, for any purpose, was my major flaw. It’s helped me learn to gauge people’s reactions to my words so I can tailor the conversation to their expectations. This has made me a better person, and feel better about myself. So when I encountered a pretty girl who broke my computer, I was able to joke around with her, rather than just quietly accepting the situation and getting away as fast as possible, like I would have before. I just wish I knew what I did wrong, and why she’s not yet called me. We should have exchanged numbers so that I could call her instead. No, that would have made things awkward, because she’s obviously not into me. Story of my life. Maybe I’ll go back to that pickup artist.