What Joel Taught Me About Body Odor... Nobody knew it, but I always had a crush on Joel. This was in Christian elementary school. Since I was one of the younger ones in the class because of my late birthday, he became my older brother. If any bullies from the higher grades picked on me during lunch, all I needed to do was tell Joel and they didn't bother me anymore. Joel had sway over the older kids because he was a jock who played on the older kids' soccer team. In fact, come to think of it, he was good at every sport. There was no losing if you were on his team. He was a one man powerhouse player. At the same time, like any older brother, he would constantly tease me. He knew I had a worm-phobia, and would sometimes creep up to me and try to scare me with fresh, reeling worms that he dug from the sand pit.

Joel looked like an Olympic greek god with his blue eyes, lightly tanned skin and medium length blond hair. I was constantly amazed by the energy that he had, always running around, never without a soccer ball far from reach. In total, we were in the same classes for four years. We got closer in that during the last few years, he had trouble keeping up with his studies. He asked for help, and I became a tutor.

All this time, we were growing up, our bodies were changing, and I was just starting to discover the male body. The most vivid and poignant memory that I associate with Joel was his body odor. Honestly, I was an academic kid, never the one who liked to run five feet, let alone sweat. So, it was during the after-lunch tutorial sessions when I would go over the reading assignments and occassionally, I would smell something that repulsed me and attracted me at the same time. Back then, I could only associate the unpleasantness sweat stink with mould, stinky feet and wet dog. But then, sometimes the air around him tasted like sugarared water on my tongue . I didn't know whether to hold me breath or move in closer while going over sentence structures.

Eventually, there was a change in administration at our school, his parents didn't like the new top tier personnel, so he moved to a school in another city.   ¶ 8:37 PM 0 comments