Goatee or Not?

So this past week after not shaving for a couple of days I decided that I could try out a little facial hair. My only history with facial hair was a beard that I grew as a bet for three weeks in high school. My family will tell you that I’m not a huge fan and that I won’t ever keep anything for a long time. (They’re probably right.) It kind of bugs me that I’m not clean-shaven. I also get all paranoid that it looks crooked or whatever, I don’t necessarily like the way that water comes off of facial hair when I’m swimming and yeah, its just hard for me to keep facial hair.

Anyways this time I thought I could go for a goatee, nothing huge, just a little hair on my chin to give me some padding when I fall on my face. The first couple of days were fine and I didn’t hear any comments or anything. However, that all changed when I went to youth group on Wednesday night. Many of the students were like, “What is that?” “Why are you growing a goatee?” and “You look weird.” Nothing huge, I don’t care too much and just told them its just because. I got some comments from a couple of Navy people and I just told them that they are jealous because they can’t grow a goatee. (All facial hair, but a mustache is prohibited.)

The real fun came later on Saturday night when I got opinions from other people. Some people thought it was alright, some liked it, and some thought it was gross. It was funny thought because I wasn’t me asking people, it would just kind of come up. Stacy, the Lighthouse directors’ wife, at one point was like, “Jeremy, aren’t you glad you have so many big sisters.” At that point I decided that it would be something fun to write a blog about. I had a bunch of the girls at the Lighthouse, who have adopted me as their little brother who they make fun of constantly, telling me about it. I’m glad that I have a lot of older sisters here to keep me in check and make sure that I’m doing alright, (don’t worry Sara, none of them are as great as you) and it was pretty funny to hear all of their opinions about it. I’ll probably shave it before Sara comes to see me next week for her spring break (sorry), but we’ll see.

The stories not over though, so hold on. Today when I was walking to church I was happy to see the Johnson van pulling over to give me the ride the rest of the way. I didn’t really expect any comments or anything and we went to church as normal, but the crack up was after the service when we were in the fellowship hall and Ellie points at my chin and says, “Jeremy, that’s funny.” Louise started laughing and then Kara followed with a “Jeremy, that’s funny.” She was pretty cute when she said it and Louise’s mom followed with, “an example of what not to say.” It made me laugh and I’m still laughing to myself right now as I write this. I went over to the Johnson’s house to spend the day and Ellie asked me later, “Jeremy, where does that come from?” I didn’t really expect Ellie to notice it very much, but obviously she did and she felt fine sharing her opinion about it. I asked her if she liked it, if she didn’t like it, or if she just thinks its funny and she just said that she thought it was funny. So that’s my goatee story. I hope you laughed a little bit.