Old School Kinda Gal

You see, I’m an old school kind of girl. You see I have, for the longest time, held on to the notion of boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. And the then boy asks girl out and they live happily ever after. And by boy asks girl out I literally mean that boy is supposed to stick to the script and say these very words without any deviation: “girl will you be my girlfriend”. You see I think that works out well and has several advantages, for example as girl who keep a meticulous record of anything and everything, you will have the exact date, time, location (perhaps even dress code) of when you started dating. That will enable you to know exactly your one week, two week, one month; three month anniversary is you see. So more than anything the concept of shelling (formally asking a girl out in kasi lingo) is important for ensuring that everyone is on the same page, there are no misunderstandings, no confusion and once again it allows one to keep an admissible record of things.

Hmmm, there has however been, over the years this nagging suspicion that times have changed, people have evolved and so have practices of old. I fear that the art and practice of shelling like the rhino is facing extinction, or worse still like the dodo whose pictures we now only see in encyclopedia, is already extinct! (Oh my, do people still make use of encyclopedias these days – there we go again, old school girl).

In order to test my hypothesis, I decided to call a friend. A friend that, by virtue of his gender, may be able to give me illuminating insights about this scarce phenomenon. In great detail he explained that the art has changed, it’s no longer as obvious, it’s more subtle, and as such one would need to know how to interpret the signs when they present themselves. Phew, like I’m wondering when did all of this happen, when did the memo go out that things no longer work as per the old ‘analogue’ system, things have gone ‘digital’! Did I sleep through this revolution? Had I taken sabbatical from societal developments? Had I accepted a special assignment to Mars to see if indeed signs that life can be sustained on that planet are true? Had I been in some kind of utopia induced coma since say, political parties were unbanned in South Africa?

Clearly, nothing logically explains how I missed these signs, or perhaps I did not miss them per se, but rather I have stubbornly held onto this old school version of boy meets girl. Well, I can hope for two things since my discovery. First, that someone publishes a short book titled “BOY MEETS GIRL 101 - THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED WHILE YOU WERE AWAY LIVING UNDER A ROCK”. Pretty long title but I’m sure that could work. Second, hopefully after having received a crash course on these issues from my dear kind friend, I too will be able to read and interpret the signs, heaven forbid I miss them! 

...Until then though, I am still an old school kinda gal...


xoxo

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