My first love was Angela Benham.

At the age of seven I was for some reason struck with this cute brunette with wavy hair, who was very popular in school, but who I don’t think even knew I existed.

Back then I was of course fairly plain, overweight, and incredibly shy.  Actually shy isn’t strong enough to describe what I had.  I was so shy I was too afraid to go to the local shops for my Mum, because that meant having to talk to the shopkeeper.  I also never answered the phone until I was 15.  I really was that shy.

But back to Angela, my first love, and almost 50 years on I have no idea what I saw in her or what feelings I actually had, but I had a crush on her at least.

My big chance came when it was my turn to be a team leader when we played games.  Every week two captains were selected by the teacher, and we each picked our own teams.  

I was torn between picking my Angela, who I desperately wanted on my team, and one of the other boys, who I knew I wanted to give us a chance of winning.

And so, I picked a boy first, and was going to pick Angela second, except to my horror, the other captain picked her first.   I was heartbroken.

I think that it was only a few months after that I transferred to a different school, which was located miles in the opposite direction, and I never saw or heard of Angela again.  But I do remember her name, and my moment of heartbreak as I made the common mistake of allowing my head to rule not my heart, and I sometimes wonder whatever became of my first love.

This article was a project for the week for GBE2 (Global Blogging Experience) and was based on the words “First Love”.