When I was 15 I realized girls liked me

 Up until 15 I had been pretty quiet and listening to my elders unlike many of the children I knew who were silly and heading towards an early death from a variety of causes. However, almost dying at age 2 from whooping cough and then almost dying from 10 to 15 from night time seizures caused by a concussion from rock climbing at age 9 made me a very serious person because I had already almost died so much by age 15. So, I tended to be much more Grown up for my age than most of my friends who hadn't almost died so much as me already.

So, I went to a church conclave (sort of like a summer camp in some ways) at Shasta Springs and two different girls kissed me. I was pretty surprised by this because I realized that girls liked me. However, looking back it was sort of like they were looking for a husband in their own church I see too now.

However, I was 15 and my point of view was "Oh! These girls like me!"

And this started to draw me out of my quietness so I could talk to girls more after that. Also, because I was more quiet at that time in my life I was a very good listener and logical and a good problem solver especially if it wasn't my own problems I was dealing with. Also, my parents were ministers in this church so I had watched them counsel many people especially dying people in my church of all ages so I had great compassion for all people because I had already almost died so many times myself at age 15 too.

So, even though I didn't initiate anything with the two different girls who kissed me that time in Shasta Springs I began to see that girls and women found me attractive in a variety of ways because I was young and strong and handsome and tall and definitely a survivor after all I had been through.

However, I didn't talk to anyone about my whooping cough or my seizures then because my father forbade me to which goes a lot with people's thinking more in the 1920s through 1940s more than anything else because my father was born in 1916 in Morenci, Arizona where my grandfather was working as an electrical contractor there at the time building homes for copper miners in Morenci then in 1916.

So, I started to come out of myself more once I realized that girls really liked me and I started to blossom into who I was capable of being because my mother and my grandmother had also taught me to be a gentleman and cultured in a variety of ways. So, all my training to become a minister of their religion was helpful both with girls in my religion and girls i met in public school after that too.

Since I was a gentleman always I was always sort of in demand around the ladies in my life.

Was this a good thing or a bad thing?

I think it was always both in a variety of ways.

I liked the attention but girls and women putting their fantasies on me was a two edged sword always.

And this is often difficult to navigate for any boy becoming a man.