I have never used the phrase, “I think we got off on the wrong foot.”

Because I don’t get off on the wrong foot. I mean, yes I do, but I let the situation worsen and fizzle or pretend like it didn’t happen.

‘I think we got off on the wrong foot’ has been said so many times by those heartbreaker boys and evil girls in the movies. For the boys, it tends to be a self-serving phrase: “I’m sorry you think of me as douche  – you’re seeing me wrong and I’ll give YOU another chance to see me how I see MYSELF.”

For the evil girl, she’s just saying it so you fall deeper into her trap. She makes YOU feel indebted to her because she was being kind and giving YOU another chance. They make the situation feel like it’s all about you, so that THEY can be on top. It’s quite a “Mean Girls” thing in my mind.

But I will be using the phrase differently.

I will be asking, in a sense, for someone’s forgiveness. With this forgiveness, I hope to clear my name, and allow both of us a new beginning (if we even had a start.)

This whole blog post pertains to, let’s call him “Brannon.”

Brannon has great taste in music, very similar to mine (if this is 500 Days of Summer – Chloe Grace Moretz should tell me he’s not the one because we like the same “bizarro crap”), he’s nice, and his face makes him look smart (it’s the glasses.)

I didn’t particularly enjoy the short-lived friendship I encountered with Brannon’s roommate though. For some reason, I found this as punishable grounds for Brannon, who didn’t really have anything to do with the conflict.

Long and vague story short, every time I see Brannon, I try to look through him or past him(the best punishment I could come up with.) I don’t know how effective it’s been, but it’s the best tactic I have to avoid him.

The other night though, he stopped by my suitemate’s room, totally unexpected.

I popped my head out the door and saw him – HE SAW ME AND SAID HI, ALL NICE AND STUFF. I was so thrown off, I don’t know if I made a sound or how quickly I pulled myself back into my room.

After the encounter, I felt guilty and embarrassed. I was being mean to someone who had no clue why. I tried (my tries are not anything spectacular) to make him not exist without any solid reason. How immature of me.

Neither one of us got the chance to know each other and I have an opportunity to fix that.

I have the opportunity to “man-up” (is this a misogynistic gender-belittling word that we’ve been trained to use?) and say, “Hi, I’m being a strange version of myself and I’m normally not. But, I want to give both you and I the chance to see how I really am. Or how we both really are.”

If I get off on the wrong foot, I will be balanced. I will be able to tango. I will not fall when I stand.

If I get off on the wrong foot, I will be able to be me, free, and flexible.

If I get off on the wrong foot, things always have the potential to be right.

 Tweet by @famouscrab. Drawn by @vectorbelly