Back in the mid 90's, I was in my first or second year of junior high. Me and my best friend were walking around in the ravine behind our school and we started discussing about his birthday. We talked about it and how fun it was going to be. He was going to do spin the bottle and we discussed about all the "cool" tasks that you would have to do along with the kiss when the bottle landed on you. We even decided that it would be great to play a game of twister. We were stoked.

The irony of it all was, I never got invited to the party. I was pretty disappointed, as any teenage boy would have been.

It wouldn't be until grade 11 that I would get my first "real" kiss. I put it in quotes because it was on the cheek. We were members of a paddling team and when our team got to the finish line, we were estatic - I don't remember what placed we finished. The girl in front of me, who I didn't know outside of the team and was a grade older, turned around to give me a hug and kissed me on the cheek. It was unexpected. I think that's what made my first race so memorable. The next year, after the same race, I returned the favour. It just felt like the right thing to do.