Life Stories
01. Two Mopeds in the Whole Town
Soviet Dzhambul. Ninth grade. Only two new Delta mopeds were brought to town, and one of them became mine. It cost about $300. I earned the money myself, and my dad helped me get my hands on the rare machine. A blue moped! For a sixteen-year-old kid, that was practically outer space happiness.
02. The School Beauty
We had a girl named Diana in our school. A gorgeous girl with long hair. Older guys used to court her, picking her up in cars. And then she comes right up to me and says, "Give me a ride!" I agreed. My mom and dad had taught me to treat girls with care. But my shiny new moped interested me a whole lot more.
03. Roadside Disaster
We're riding along. And suddenly, my brand-new Delta stalls. It wouldn't start! All I had in my head was: what happened to the engine? I told Diana, "Walk home. I'm going to push the moped back. You don't need to wait for me." And that was it. No romantic apologies. My machine was broken!
04. An Unexpected Result
Later on, Diana started showing interest in me. And I couldn't understand what had even happened. I wasn't playing hard to get. I wasn't using any sneaky tricks. I was just genuinely interested in living my own life. And a girl, no matter how pretty she was, couldn't replace the rest of the world for me.
05. Summer, Camp, and Yulia
Then came pioneer camp. Yulia showed up there, another recognized beauty. She tried to catch my attention. But I liked Natasha. Not because she was prettier by somebody else's standards. I just liked her. Period. Other people's ideas about who I was supposed to choose didn't interest me at all.
06. The Secret Without a Secret
Later on, my buddies would ask, "How do you manage to make girls like you?" And I never knew what to say. I tinkered with bicycles, mopeds, and motorcycles. I worked, earned my own money, and was passionate about machinery. I didn't need a girl to make my life interesting.
07. Why It's Appealing
When a person is busy doing what they love, they don't turn every encounter into an attempt to please. They don't need to play the hero. They already feel comfortable in their own skin. That kind of quiet independence can be far more attractive than a dozen rehearsed pickup lines. And you don't even have to treat girls poorly to pull it off.
08. The Main Thing I Didn't Understand Back Then
At sixteen, I didn't know any psychological formulas. I just wanted to fix my blue Delta. And honestly, that was probably what the whole story was about. You don't need to make another person the center of the universe just to earn their attention. First, learn to live your own life. Then you'll actually have something to share.