This week on Dayton Youth Radio, we meet A'lise Melvin, who will give us a glimpse of teen love during senior year, when emotions run high and the future is coming fast.
When I got to high school freshman year, I met this boy in my science class. He was funny. He knew how to get my attention even though he was short as heck; he was so short, his feet didn't even touch the ground while he was sitting in a chair. He was still fun to be around.
It was our first date. We went to the movies to see Insidious 4. He even paid for everything - pretzel bites, Sprite, and he paid for my Uber to get to the movies. It was the scariest movie I've ever seen. He tried to do that thing when I got scared, and he snuck out his arm around me. Would you believe the next day he told me I needed to pay him back for the Uber...like boy, no!
Good things don't last forever. One day my sister told me he was flirting with other girls when I had to stay home from school. I broke up with him because he was disloyal. I was 15 at the time. Even though I really liked him a lot, I felt like I was worth more. I would tell him that I loved him, but looking back on it now I didn't know what love was...until I found my boyfriend now.
Simieon means so much to me, and he's such a gentleman. When I saw him the first day of junior year, he came with a fresh haircut, nice shoes. He was so clean. We clicked instantly. It's crazy how you could be so sad over someone then meet someone new and just be happy all over again.
I went into the studio to talk to Simieon.
"So what I like about you is your smile. You always smell good. I like how you give hugs to go warm hugs and you tall. What do you like about me?" I asked him.
"You're very beautiful. You're funny. I can sit here at least all day but I'm not going do that. When I first saw you I thought you were cute," Simieon replied.
"Do you love me?" I asked.
"Yes a lot," he said. Then I asked him why. "You're considerate, a good person. You're funny….beautiful [laughs]."
"When did you know you loved me?"
"I don't know exactly how," he said. "I know it's been for a while."
I asked Simieon what makes him love me.
"That's a hard question," he said. "It's like saying, trying to explain it all."
"Do you see me future?"
"Absolutely."
If you just know your worth and focus on yourself, you will find that one, and you’re gonna know.
Even though we're seniors and we're going to be separated because of the different colleges we want to go to - there's going be a distance between us because we got different goals and dreams - but I think we'll find our way back together, and we love each other.
A'lise Melvin is a senior at Ponitz CTC High School. Special Thanks to Ponitz Radio media arts instructors Joanne Viskup and Jeffrey Crowell. Learn more at the school's website: http://ponitzctc.org. Dayton Youth Radio is supported by the Virginia W. Kettering Foundation and the Ohio Arts Council.