I Was Never Good at Impressing Girls

I've never been a competitive bowler. Never been in a league or had anything riding on any game. I am an extremely average bowler. It's something I always just did for fun. In college, I bowled a lot. My friends and I would take advantage of Quartermania at Holiday Lanes in Pittsburg whenever we could.

Just before Christmas I bowled there for the first time in almost four years. It conjured up all sorts of memories, but one in particular stood apart from the rest.

One evening during my sophomore year I went bowling with a couple friends. When we got to the bowling alley, I discovered that a girl I liked was going to be joining us. I started the evening pretty excited because I thought it would a great chance to get to know her better. Unfortunately, my enthusiasm died around the 5th frame. I was not doing well at all.

These days, I would have shrugged it off. But at the age of 19, I let it get to me. My hopes of impressing this girl were gone, and I didn't even break 100.

Fortunately, there was another game to be played. But somehow, I managed to bowl even worse than before. What started as an evening full of fun was turning into a disaster. The only thing worse than my score was my attitude. And when I finished that particular game with a 69, the girl I liked told us she was leaving.

(Nothing ever happened between me and her. What a surprise, right?)

My two friends still wanted to bowl. I'm not sure why they wanted to spend another second with me, but whatever... I agreed to stick around. In an effort to put me in a better mood, they changed my name on the scorecard to "SilverStreak."

Then it happened.

As if the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders, I started bowling the game of my life. There was no one to impress. No expectations to meet. I just bowled. And when it was all said and done, I literally had bowled the game of my life: a 220.

Yes, I improved my score by 151. I dare someone to try and make this stuff up. And by the way, I've never even gotten close to either one of those scores since.

This is the only proof I have from that night.