Even as I struggled with feelings of loneliness during the winter of my senior year, my perspective began to change. For example, one Saturday morning in February, I was lying in bed when the thought occurred to me that a year from that moment I would be on a mission. It was a sobering thought; it was also right on the money. In February 1988 I was in my first area in the mission field. From that morning on I started looking more and more toward my mission.
Sometime in the month of March, I finished reading the Book of Mormon for the first time. I then remembered something else my father had said, which was that he wanted to always be reading the Book of Mormon, thus, when he would finish, he would turn right around and start reading it again.
By now I was thinking seriously about serving a mission and I figured that if I started reading the Book of Mormon again that I might be able to get through it before going on my mission. With these two things in mind I started reading the Book of Mormon again the day after finishing it for the first time.
Despite what happened at the prom, I decided to get right back on the horse by going out on another date. I got a pair of tickets to a University of Utah basketball game and asked Ann, who I had met the year before in my photography class, to go with me. We both had a good time, even though Utah lost a close game at the buzzer.
Afterward we went for ice cream, but I worried that she might not be having a good time because, again, I did not have much to say. Actually, she told me a few days later that she had a great time, but worried that I did not because of how quiet I was.
As it turned out, Ann was not the first girl I had asked to the game. I had to ask several different girls before I found one who was able to say yes. Persistence can pay off, but I did not want Ann to know that she was not the only girl I asked.
Speaking of basketball, it was that time of year for church ball. My team did not win many games that year but I had a few good moments on the court. Twice in one game I stole the ball and started down court to try and score. An opposing player got back on defense each time and I surprised him by pulling up for short jump shots, both of them good.
There was one game that was a bit of a nightmare. We were playing the best team in the stake and they were kicking our butts. By playing full court press defense they quickly built a big lead. At some point a teammate stole the ball and I was in a position where I could quickly get behind the defense.
I took the pass and dribbled in for a layup, but as I was going up I felt something rub against my back. Whatever it was it had the effect of taking my legs out from under me and I crashed hard to the floor. After a moment I was able to get up and make it to the bench, but there was a problem; we had only six or seven players and one or two had already fouled out of the game. I had no choice but to go back in. I walked over to the foul line assuming that a foul had been called only to find out that was not the case.
I gutted out the rest of the game and not long after my fall I got the ball and scored on a nice jump shot. The next day, one of the opposing players, who was in my history class, told me that I had earned some respect for gutting it out.
In early March the state high school basketball playoffs were held at the Huntsman Center on the University of Utah campus. At one game, the friend who had given me a ride in had to leave early, and I did not have a ride home. I talked to several people about getting a ride home, but had no luck. Not knowing what else to do I started walking down the hill. As I walked, I closed my eyes and said a prayer, asking the Lord to help me find a ride.
Within ten minutes, Jamie happened by. She stopped to pick me up, and after getting into her car, I closed my eyes to give a silent prayer of thanks.
As I said in my last post, somehow things had gotten better. One of the friends who helped was Gabrielle. We had been acquainted for a few years, but as winter turned to spring we were becoming better friends. In mid-April I asked Gabrielle to the Senior Ball -- my school did not have a Senior Prom, it had a Senior Ball instead.
Unable to think of anything clever, I simply dropped a note off at her house. I did, however, put the note in a legal envelope on which I wrote in big letters, TOP SECRET and EYES ONLY GABRIELLE.
She answered right away, saying that she would love to go to the ball with me. But there was a problem; a big piano competition was scheduled for the same day as the dance. Gabrielle was not sure if she could do both the competition and the dance. I replied that while I still hoped that I could take her to the ball, I would support her if she decided to participate in the competition.
I did not tell her about the feeling I was having inside of "Uh, oh, here we go again."
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