Off the top of my head

By Chad Armbruster

Well this being the "season of love" you might be expecting me to write about it, but good news fans -- I'm not. Instead I'm going to talk about words that are hard to say. Now, I'm not talking literally hard like, leptocephalus, disestablishmentarianism or tatterdemalion. No, I'm talking about simple things like "I'm sorry."

For example, here's a little story about a boy named Sue -- no wait, let's call him Chad. When Chad was in middle school he had a music teacher whom he admired and held in very high regard. Now, as Chad progressed into his high school years he continued to have the same teacher of music; however, due to some hideous science experiment he grew into a rebellious and obnoxious teenager.

Not that Chad went out and broke into cars or anything. But he wasn't really a pleasant person to be around. And he was never near the grassy knoll when the thing with the other thing happened. Any way, back to the after-school special.

The teacher ... oh, let's call her Mrs. Wegmann, did her very best to deal with Chad and his annoying qualities. She worked hard and was very patient with him until the bitter end (i.e., graduation). Throughout the hellish years of high school Chad was bitter, jaded and mean-spirited. (Don't worry I'll be coming to my point here in a bit.)

After graduation, and many years, Chad had thought about the music teacher and all the things she had taught him. He had, over time, felt tremendous guilt for the way he had treated her and of course felt the need to say "I'm sorry" to her. See, maybe it's foolish manly-man pride, but this comes as a hard thing to say. (See I told you I'd be coming to the point.) Admitting you were wrong and eating crow always leaves a bitter taste in one's mouth. Even if you know you've been an ass and the apologies are completely warranted it's sometimes almost harder to say than coming up with a unified theory for the universe. Well, at least it feels that way.

So, it was with sweaty palms and nervous stomach that he approached the teacher (this past week) and said his apologies, thereby making his peace. And you know what? As soon as the words left his mouth he felt better. All of the nerves, guilt and tension were lifted. I felt better ... uhm, he felt better and the teacher got a very well-deserved apology. So, all is well in the universe, but I'm still working on that whole unified theory idea.

Okay, the moral of the story is just to say what's on your mind and get it out in the open. Don't let pride or fear get in the way of what needs to be said. I'm sure you all know of other hard words to say, such as "Thank you" or "I love you." And there's always the biggie -- which in front of all you loyal readers I'm going to say -- so that way it's in print and I can't take it back. Nikki, will you marry me?