Boys are like wobbly tables

Photo of table 83 by Shelly Slocum

     Sitting at table 83 outside the local Panera Bread, my friend Pearse got frustrated with our table as it wobbled every time he leaned on it. After further examination, he found that a bottom piece was missing from one of its legs. We continued talking, and though he attempted to ignore the incessant wobbling, he was constantly bothered by the table’s fault. An hour and a half of leisurely conversation passed, and by that time, my friend found himself to have become quite fond of the table and it's wobbling. He enjoyed playing with the table; he wobbled with it instead of becoming frustrated with it and its broken leg.

     “You learn to love the wobbles,” said Pearse.

     In many ways, guys are like that wobbly table. Girls tend to judge and pick out faults in guys they don't know; they’re too out there, their nose is crooked, you can never tell what he’s thinking. But as they start to spend more time with the guy and get to know them, they find that the thing they used to dislike most about them is what makes them special. The annoying habit that used to irk the girl is what set them apart and is now what she loves most. Too often, people forget about the three sturdy legs, as they are too focused on the one fault; sometimes, it just takes flipping your perspective to appreciate the value in someone.

     I myself am guilty of judging a “table” based on its one shaky leg, although sometimes flipping your perspective doesn’t help a flaw that is too large to overlook.

     Back in my junior year of high school, my friends Thomas and Kaitlyn decided that I’d been single for too long. They brought me on a blind double date with them, but I couldn’t bring myself to fall in love with the boy. He didn’t talk to me much, and he simply seemed uninterested. We texted afterwards, though, and he eventually became my boyfriend. As we dated, but he didn’t seem as interested in me as I was in him. He slept through our dates, proving that he obviously wasn’t as excited as I was to hang out. Meanwhile, I became fond of him and liked him more with each day, overlooking his flaw of invariable forgetfulness, but this flaw never became something I admired.

     “Sometimes an annoying wobbly table is always an annoying wobbly Table,” said Lexi Wood.

     That boy and I never worked, though, because sometimes that one unsteady leg never gets better. So I flipped the table and walked away. This has been our daily bagel.