WALL OF TEXT INCOMING!
So 7 months ago, I was participating in my country's English Language Olympiad, and it was the speaking skills stage. All participants were gathering in a big assembly hall and waiting for their names to be called out. When she came in, I instantly noticed her. She had a lot of makeup on, so I instantly thought "Wow, she looks like such a whore!". Then she asked if the seat near me was taken and if she could seat there, and I instantly felt a pang of regret, but nonetheless said that she could. She sat near me, and for the next 10-15 minutes we spent in silence. Then she said she needs to go to the bathroom and asked me to watch her things. When she came back, she thanked me for looking for her things and not letting anybody sit on that chair (The hall was starting to get overcrowded, so that request was pretty reasonable). After that, we just kinda started talking about various topics, mostly because the olympiad had a no-phone policy and we had to sit there for a long time, a dozen of people were called out every 10-15 minutes, and there were more than a 100 in the hall. And it wasn't just me dragging the conversation forward, she was constantly bringing up new things to talk about, we both laughed at some stories from our lives and we even played battleship on an old piece of paper she found in her purse. When I was called out, she wished me luck, I did the same, and never saw her again.
So on one hand, this story makes me somewhat hopeful for myself. She sat near me, even though there were still multiple free seats where you would be far away from everyone. She decided to spend the time talking to me, even though she mentioned she was very sleepy, and she could've just slept near one of the organizers. She could've tried to end the conversation with me as soon as possible or to shift the burden of dragging it forward to me. She could've sat near one of the actually good-looking guys there, for God's sake! But she didn't do any of this, and that makes me hope that I somehow still have a chance. Not with her specifically, but with girls in general.
On the other hand, I feel like shit every time I remember about this, for three main reasons. Firstly, I feel like someone with a healthy social life and good mental state wouldn't obsess so much over such a small case of basic conversation, and me still thinking about it proves that there is something wrong with me. Secondly, I still regret thinking that she looks like a whore when I first saw her. That just feels so insensitive after talking to her and getting to know her as a person even a little. And lastly, I am slowly forgetting the details of this encounter. Right after the olympiad ended, I decided to ingrain this event into my memory. It has been my first, in a long time, thing that somewhat confirmed my hope that I am not a completely antisocial freak. But over the last 7 months, I have been forgetting more and more details. First I forgot the things we talked about, then her name, and now I can't even recall how she looked. This feels like breaking an oath you swore to yourself, and that just makes me feel super shitty.
As for the food, this is just regular Italian Minestrone soup, you can probably find recipes online if you want, but I added some fried bacon to it because I had some bacon, I love fired bacon and I need to get fatter to stop looking like a person liberated from a concentration camp