­ Dear MaryAnne,
My name is Morgan Hubbard, and I have a problem and I was wondering if you could help me. Okay, I am in 9th grade, and ever since 5th grade, there has been this boy that I have had a major crush on, and he's know since 6th grade that I like him, well anyhow, over the past 3 years life for me hasn't been very pretty, I mean in April of 1999, I went to Maryland for a research project at one of the hospitals, and at the end of our stay, we found out that I was born with this syndrome that would eventually leave me blind, because one of the things that is part of this syndrome, is an eye disease. So we got back from Maryland, and so it comes August time again and school starts, so now I am in the 7th grade and I made the decision that everyone was going to be told, cause I knew that most of them would be going to high school with me, and he found out and we stayed friends, and then at the end of 8th grade, we got our yearbooks, and he signs it and he writes my name, then he writes "Keep it real, I love you", and I asked him if it was supposed to mean anything and he said that it meant something, but he wouldn't tell me what it was supposed to mean, and over the summer between 8th and 9th grade, my crush on him got so big, that it is now to the point where I get cold shills up and down my spin, I think about him 24/7, I get this weird felling in my stomach whenever one of my friends either say his name or when they say something about him, I have a lot of dreams about him, and I am miserable, because I can't see him, because he is going to a different school this year, and sometimes my heart will start to ache because of the way I feel towards him. My problem is that I don't know what I should do next year when I see him, I mean do I tell him that I like him a LOT, do I tell him exactally how I feel, and if I do that I don't know if by doing it by that way, if it will scare him away from me and make him not want to talk to me, and I don't want that to happen, because our relationship that we have right now, is to valuable to me and I don't want to lose him as a friend. With what I have told you about how I feel towards him, can you tell me what I should do, cause my best friend keeps saying that I am in love with him, but I'm not sure, by the way, his name is Jeff.
I hope that you can help me or at least give me some advice, I coauld use some advice right about now before I lose my mind and go crazy, but that is impossible, because my best friend thinks that I lost my mind a long time ago, and that I've gone crazy already, and if that's the case, then that is not good, because I am only 15 as of Dec. 20.
Thanks for taking tine out to listen to me, Morgan

­ Morgan:

First, never lose your wonderful sense of humor it will get you through the hard times to come. You haven’t lost your mind any more than the rest of us millions of people who have been in love or at least thought we were.
Tell you best friend that she is just detached because she happens not to be where you are feeling wise with this guy. Someday you will be holding her up when a great guy walks by her.
OK, first, why do you have to wait for all of this till next year. And if you have till next year why are you dealing with it now? Maybe you have lost it, you are letting this guy drive you “nuts”.
What I was thinking as I was reading your letter, why aren’t you in chat or email contact with him? If you are friends why do you have to cut off just because you are in different schools? In fact I wouldn’t give him that much time a year to not hear from me. I think you got some work to do now Morgan.
You need to get some connections together find out is email address. Then just write him as a friend. To find out how he is doing. Send a “friend” Christmas card, and catch him up on your life. Just to get things back on “friend” track.
You get that much done and then write me and we will talk about where to go to from there. But I would not just let him forget me all this year. You can have a pen pal email friendship and I would think that is perfectly normal. It might even bring you closer because you two can talk about things going on in your lives and help each other as friends.
If you don’t like the idea write back and we will discuss next year, but I think that is too long and a mistake for staying on his mind.
By the way, when I guy won’t say what “keep it real, I love you” it usually means that it is a little more than just friendship, otherwise why wouldn’t he just say? Think about it. But also remember you are 15 and we take it slow and keep it “separate” if you know what I mean. So lets start out slow with email and making this friendship come back solid and with some meaning to it for both of you.
Let me know what happens,
MaryAnne