Its true what they say... that you never forget your first love...

Well, my first love was Yannick Noah. Yes, the famous tennis player back in the 80's. Yes, the fun one with the dreads that used to used to throw himself across the court into a roll to pick up a point. I was about 6 years old and had to ask permission from my parents to stay up past 9pm and watch him play in the 84'Wimbledon. I do believe he was my first conscious crush.

Aaahhhh....

The reason I'm remembering him is that I happened to hear him on a CD... I never knew that he is a pretty known singer. Famous in France I guess. I haven't thought about him in a while, but the music was reminding me of something, and I asked my friend who was singing:

"Yannick Noah" - my friend says
"Yannick? hmm... what, like the famous tennis player?" - I said jokingly
"Exactly!! How did you know?"

How did I know!!?!??!!!! Waaaw. It's been such a long time since I thought about him. I just didn't know he sings. It was very strange to google him and see his pictures from before and now. I used to spend summers with my grandmother and I remember how she got me into tennis. Years later I took tennis lessons, because I wanted to be like Yannick. Once I considered getting dreads (like Yannick) but than I learned that the only way to undo them was to cut them. So once in a while I just content myself with twisting my curls into little tubes. Waw, 21 years have past since the time I was sitting on the couch biting my nails rooting for him.

I was so excited to learn that he sings that I immediately grabbed the phone to call my grandma only to be stuck with a realization that I can't call her. She passed away a few years ago. It was a moment of complete dumbfoundedness for me. I just stood there. I mean, this was a piece of interesting news, Yannick sings, and I was about to order a CD right away and bring it over to listen together with my grandma... exept... she's not here anymore. It was just so strange, I still stood there thinking that there MUST be some way that I can send her the news!!!?? I mean she is the ONLY person on earth (well, now in heaven) that knows about my "thing" for Yannick. The ONLY person. NO ONE else knows, it was me and Grandma on that couch that summer rooting for him. I was so confused. Joy in life is great, but even greater when you can share it with someone. I felt silly telling my parents and my friends about this grand discovery... and the whole story of my "first crush" returning back into my life through the music... Its one of those "you had to be there" stories. But really its more than a story, he is not just a tennis player and a singer, he represents a piece of a connection between me and my grandmother.

Everything may seem like a joke but you can't kid around with time. It goes. It doesn't laugh with you or at you, it just goes. If you think you're hilarious, great, but will you think you're hillarious 20 years later? Lets hope so. Just another reminder not to take people for granted. Not to take the moments you share with these people with fleeting attention, you may think back one day on these moments as treasures. Grandma was awesome!


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Well for those of you (probably very few) that know Yannick here are some links:

Yannick Noah's website

More... music

Live 8 concert- A concert raising funds for children in poverty. It was amaizing to see his name umong those supporting this issue. He performed in the "Live8" concerts, pre-G8 conference, against child poverty. And by the way, Shakira was also one of the artist there.

Charity work

I'm also really excited to see that someone who was one of my favorite people when I was 6, can still be one of my favorite people now.