The Match Essay, Research Paper

For every person, there is a match. There is a person who completes him or her in ways they never imagined. Some people search their entire life for their match and are never able to find them. Others find their match and know instantly. Still others find their match, but do not realize until years later. Those who find their match are very lucky and happy people. Those who don t find their match may end up to be very remorseful and moody people. My match used to sit right behind me, but I never knew it until it was too late.

I was a sophomore in high school when I met him. The air was sweet and smelled of fresh cut grass. The temperature was mild, but the humidity felt like someone had left the hot water running in a small shower stall. Joshua Andrew Mauzy was his name. He was a freshman then. He wore a pair of broken in blue jeans that were tight on his legs and a black T-shirt with some silly faded words on it. He had that smell of a man. The smell of a man is a sweet smelling mixture of sweat, oil, wood, aand some cologne. His cologne was Aspen. I will always remember his smell.

I remember our first conversation, although it was a short one. We were both in band, so we had to go to band practice every Thursday at seven o clock starting after the first Tuesday in July. We all had to be on the practice field by seven o clock, and I had to get all of the people who were not on the field together. Josh was one of the people who was not there. He was in the parking lot behind the school, which is where all of the band students used to park. He was sitting in his pearl Chevy truck with a gray hood. I asked him what he was doing. What does it look like I m doing? I m smoking a cigarette. He was very rude to me, and had the look in his eyes that told me exactly how much he cared. I told him that it was time for practice.

Over time, Josh and I became very close friends. We would talk about everything, from how things were going at home, to boyfriends and girlfriends. I guess that one could say we talked about anything and everything. One conversation that was very important happened the day after I went to the doctor and found out I was pregnant.

I called him, and we decided to meet at a quaint little park on the outskirts of Ashland City. I got there a little early so I could have time to think by myself. I sat on one of the picnic tables that overlooked the water. There were several different types of trees around me, but all I can tell you about them are that they were green and in full bloom. There was a duck sitting in the middle of the inlet. I remember watching the duck just sit there in the stillness of the water. I do not know how long I sat there or how long he sat watching me. What I do know is that when I noticed he was there, he came to stand in front of me and gently tilted my fact towards him. As he was moving my face, he was wiping the teas off my cheeks with his fingertips. I did not have to say a word; my eyes said it all. He wrapped his arms around me and held me until the sun went down.

We never spoke after that day. He went on to finish high school. I moved to Florida to have my son and finish school. I do not speak of him to anyone, but every now and then, I will think of what we had and what I lost by running away. No matter what happens in my life, I will always believe that he was my match.