Over the years I’ve learned the importance of giving people second chances. Not every second chance has ended up in friendship but more often than not my first impression of that person has been altered. So I’m constantly counseling my children about this fact, something my daughter has been getting her own taste of this past year.

Last summer, a new young man was hired as a lifeguard at the pool my daughter works at. This young man happened to be incredibly good looking. Every girl on staff was freaking out at his presence. I’ve had this kid in my car a couple of times so I can attest they are not overreacting, he is pretty but that is beside the point.

At the first quarterly in-service training after his hire the manager asked my daughter to be his partner. As a seasoned swimmer and lifeguard, he thought my daughter would be able to help him the most. My daughter thought nothing of it but didn’t like how coldly the boy treated her the entire time during that in-service.

“He’s a stuck up jerk,” she told me.

Over the past year and many crossing schedules, their many interactions softened my daughter’s initial feelings on that young man. And his initial coldness warmed up immensely. He even personally took every shift of my daughter’s that he could when she had her car accident in December of last year.

Then, this last week, while they were scrubbing away at the locker rooms after closing for the night, he confessed why he had treated her so badly that first in-service. He thought she had asked to be his partner because she wanted to touch him.

My daughter said he sprayed him in the face with the hose she held when she heard it and said something like, “I didn’t ask to be you partner, the manager assigned me to you.”

He apologized for thinking negatively of her and told her he’d really enjoyed working with her. He also thanked her for treating him normally and not always trying to flirt with him. I guess being so extremely cute comes with hazards us normal people will never understand, but I could have told him if my daughter really was interested she wouldn’t have been able to talk to him at all. It’s the saddest phenomenon I’ve ever seen, and one I hope she will overcome one day. But I am glad that both of them have come to recognize it’s not so terrible to give someone a second chance.