Chivalry for the Win

Today has been crazy. I left school early to go get my license, and then I returned to finish out the day and go to track practice. I have to say, this speed and agility training isn't as bad as I thought it would be. It's definitely not the "throw, lift, eat, repeat" mentality that I am used to, but it is coming along fine. We actually got to throw today! Unfortunately, there was a mud whole in the middle of the shot put sector. Coach warned us about it and told us to aim around it, but no matter how hard I aimed, my throw always ended up in the middle of the giant mud whole. What's funny is that you can completely tell who lives on a farm and who lives in town just by the way they react towards the mud. The kids that live in town are like "Oh, no! I got mud on my white t-shirt! Someone get me a towel." and all of us 'farm-folk' are like "Dude, let's have a mud fight!". It is very entertaining. I have a feeling that my coach lives in town because he doesn't like the mud that much. Thankfully, my throws are actually getting better! I had a strange "It all makes sense now" epiphany with my shot put glide last week, so hopefully my distances will start to increase.

After track I went to Ally's house to have supper really quick and then I had to head back to school for Encore. As I walked into the choir room, there were a couple of other people standing around. I walked to the back of the room to grab a chair and I set it in "my spot". I was about to walk to the other side of the room to get a stand, but Logan, a bass who is a year older than me, said, "I'll get your stand, Annastazia." I smiled and said, "Oh, you don't have to do that. I can get it." but he insisted, so I let him. He returned with my stand, but then adjusted it to the right height, put my folder on it, opened my folder, got my music out, got me a pencil, and then held my chair as I sat down. I looked at him, remembering the lesson last year in youth group about being extra nice to men who display chivalry, and said, "Thank you, Logan, I appreciate it." Danielle had just walked in and her jaw was nearly on the floor and she said, "Logan, that is chivalry at its finest, well done." During rehearsal, I let that whole situation stew over in my brain. I was really confused. Logan is nice, but I wouldn't even consider us to be friends. The only time I ever talk to him is when I am chewing him out for singing the wrong notes (mainly because I am like obsessed with the bass part in every single sheet of music I receive) or when I am answering a question he has in Spanish class. The fact that he didn't do that for any of the other girls made me a little skeptical as well. It's not that I don't like chivalry, I actually think it's awesome to see guys care enough to do those simple things, but when it happens in strange situations like this, it creeps me out. If it had been one of my close friends, such as John, Micah, Britton, Elijah, or Byron, doing this, I wouldn't have been creeped out at all.

Chivalry is becoming quite rare, at least from what I see. Everyday in school I watch so many guys push past girls to get out of class faster, or walk right by a girl who is about to drop her books, or make rude and unnecessary comments. I have not seen a guy open a car door for a girl or hold open any door for that matter in a very long time. It's not like I expect it to happen, it just seems strange when people trade kind gestures for rude and unthoughtful ones.